Merkuri penyumbang utama pencemaran toksik di dunia

dauswq

World's 10 Worst Toxic Pollution Problems





The price of gold affects more than global finances; it also drives the world's most toxic pollution problem, according to new research from the Blacksmith Institute, an environmental health group based in New York City. Miners in countries from across Africa and Southeast Asia use mercury to separate the precious metal from the surrounding rock and silt. To then separate the resulting amalgam of gold and mercury, heat must be applied to vaporize the mercury. Typically, heating occurs over an open gas flame, releasing the potent neurotoxic element into the atmosphere. What's more, the estimated 10 million to 20 million workers who mine for gold this way will all too often inhale the mercury, putting their health at profound risk.

"Small-scale gold mining contributes to one third of the mercury released into the environment today," says physicist Stephan Robinson of Green Cross Switzerland—Blacksmith's partner in the research and ranking—or nearly as much as coal burning by power plants. "This is continuing to increase because of rising gold prices."

The researchers estimate that more than 3.5 million people suffer from mercury-related health effects as a result of such artisanal gold mining, making it the world's worst toxic pollution problem in terms of number of people affected.

The toxic top 10:

•     Mercury pollution from gold mining (3.5 million people)
•     Lead pollution from industrial parks (nearly 3 million)
•     Pesticides from agriculture (more than 2.2. million)
•     Lead smelting (just under 2 million)
•     Chromium pollution from leather tanning (more than 1.8 million)
•     Mercury residue from other mining (more than 1.5 million)
•     Lead pollution from mining (more than 1.2 million)
•     Lead pollution from improper battery recycling (nearly one million)
•     Arsenic in groundwater (at least 750,000)
•     Pesticide manufacturing and storage (more than 700,000).

Notably, groundwater arsenic is the only naturally occurring pollution problem—and it is in ninth place. Put together, arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury and pesticides are the leading causes of such toxic hot spots largely created by mining, metal smelting, chemical manufacture, agriculture, heavy industry, tanneries and waste disposal, among other activities.

"We find lead all over the world, we find arsenic all over the world, chromium from tanneries all over the world," says Blacksmith's Bret Ericson, who managed the three-year project. "These are not large-scale, multinational corporations that are responsible for this pollution. Typically, it's low income, small-scale industries who have no emissions controls," often because these outdated industries remain unregulated.

All told, an expanded list that also includes specialized activities such as chemical manufacturers and uranium mining finds that at least 100 million people worldwide suffer health effects or die from such pollution. "We anticipate that number growing as we continue the inventory work," Ericson says.

The list derives from Blacksmith's survey of more than 2,000 toxic sites in 47 different countries in the developing world. The researchers then ranked the sites and problems by " disability life-adjusted year," or DALY, which measures both early death and the impact of pollution-related disease. In essence, one DALY equals "one year of 'healthy' life lost," the researchers wrote in the report released on November 9.

On average, those afflicted by the 10 worst pollution problems lost 12.7 DALYs of life. "It could mean that a person has 6.7 years with a serious disease as well as dying six years earlier than they otherwise would have," Ericson explains.
But that ranges from nearly 24 years lost because of lead in industrial wastewater to just under three years lost from  hexavalent chromium, the carcinogenic form of the element, from tanneries.

"The chromium process is old, historic and efficient, and any other process is not likely to dominate," says environmental health scientist Jack Caravanos of the City University of New York School of Public Health, who consulted on the report and suggests  chromium tanning for leather is not going away. "The goal is to install industrial waste treatment plants that collect the waste, as opposed to just discharging it. We have to live with hexavalent chromium and manage it at the source." Management tactics range from using bone charcoal to soak up the carcinogen and then dispose of it as toxic waste to chemically transforming hexavalent chromium to a more benign form.

In many cases, however, the fixes are even simpler. "We have also seen people working in these mines ill-equipped, who do not wear gloves or very often shoes," Robinson notes. "The mines are located in the middle of villages, and children are playing on the waste rocks and tailings."

The solution for the health impacts of artisanal gold mining is not to shut down the mines. "We're not interested in putting people out of work," Ericson says. It is instead a simple retort—essentially a still, or a sealed chamber, for heating the amalgam with an attached outlet tube for cooling and recapturing the mercury vapor. "They are built by local craftsmen using locally available materials and cost a few dollars," Robinson says. "It allows miners to recycle 99 percent of the mercury and saves their health, but also the health of the global community."

There is one major source of toxic hot spots worldwide that does not appear on this list: oil production and its ancillary industries. "If the data existed, the petrochemical industry would be included as one of the top 10 pollution problems," the researchers wrote in the report, noting that processing one ton of crude oil results in 3.5 to five cubic meters of wastewater and three to five kilograms of sludge and other solid waste. They add that thousands of sites are "contaminated by the petrochemical industry, often in highly populated areas." But, because such sites tend to be neither abandoned nor defunct and are largely immune from regulatory control, the oil industry "falls out of the focus of what we're looking at," Ericson explains. "There's a lot of information on petrochemicals out there."

In the future the Blacksmith Institute and Green Cross Switzerland hope to be able to measure the pollution burden of individual countries. In the meantime the environmental health groups note that the health impacts of pollution rival diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis but lacks similar systematic global systems to combat it. "The problems we're looking at are on a scale with other types of public health threats in these countries, like malaria," Ericson notes. "Toxic hot spots are a problem hiding in plain sight."


POLLUTION PROBLEM: Improperly used pesticides can lead to a host of health impacts, including those pictured, and lands such pollution at number three on a list of the world's worst pollution problems.
Image: Courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute





P/s: Mengikut artikel di atas, pencemaran merkuri didapati paling banyak berlaku di negara-negara pengeluar emas. Pekerja buruh industri terbabit mudah terdedah kepada asap merkuri yang diekstrak dari campuran merkuri dan emas tulen. FYI, emas yang digali dibumi bukan emas tulen, yakni campuran ngan unsur kimia yang lain spt merkuri dll

Selain itu, plumbum yang didapati dari industri kumbahan air juga penyebab kepada masalah toksik  

LEES

fuuhhhh trukkknyerr

chewan

insyaallah..kalo de rezeki ak nk smbg tajuk nie phd

dauswq

MERKURI DAN KESANNYA TERHADAP KESEHATAN MANUSIA


Ketoksikan merkuri berbeza mengikut jenis kimianya, misalnya merkuri inorganik bersifat toksik pada
ginjal, sedangkan merkuri organik seperti metil merkuri bersifat toksik pada sistem saraf pusat.

3 jenis merkuri, yaitu:

1. Merkuri elemental (Hg): terdapat dalam termometer

2. Merkuri inorganik: dalam bentuk Hg++ (Mercuric) dan Hg+ (Mercurous)
Misalnya:
- Merkuri klorida (HgCl2) termasuk bentuk Hg inorganik yang sangat toksik, kaustik dan
digunakan untuk penyuntikan
- Mercurous chloride (HgCl) yang digunakan untuk teething powder dan laksansia (calomel)
- Mercurous fulminate yang bersifat mudah terbakar.

3. Merkuri organik: terdapat dalam beberapa bentuk, a.l. :
- Metil merkuri dan etil merkuri yang keduanya termasuk bentuk rantaian alkil ditemui menyebabkan keracunan yang berbahaya.
Misalnya memakan ikan yang tercemar zat tsb. dapat menyebabkan gangguan kepada sistem neurologi dan kongenital.
- Merkuri dalam bentuk rantai rantaian alkil dan aryl yang panjang diguna sebagai antiseptik dan fungisida.

dauswq

BAHAYA UTAMA TERHADAP KESEHATAN

1. Merkuri elemental (Hg)
- Pernafasan: acapkali menyebabkan keracunan
- Jika tertelan bijihnya, ternyata tidak menyebabkan ketoksikan kerana kadar penyerapan yang rendah kecuali jika merkuri tersimpan untuk waktu lama di saluran gastrointestinal.
- Intravena dapat menyebabkan emboli paru.

Jenis merkuri ini bersifat larut dalam lemak, dan mudah menyerap masuk ke dalam otak dan plasenta. Di otak
ia akan meresap masuk ke dalam korteks cerebrum dan cerebellum dimana ia akan teroksida dalam bentuk ion merkurik (Hg++ ). Hg ++ akan bertindakbalas dengan dengan sulfhidril dari protein enzim dan protein seluler menghasilkan bahan yang
menggangu fungsi enzim dan sel penghantaran. Pemanasan logam merkuri membentuk wap merkuri oksida yang bersifat penghakis pada kulit, selaput mukosa mata, mulut, dan saluran pernafasan.

2. Merkuri inorganik:
Mudah menyerap melalui gastrointestinal, paru-paru dan kulit.
Pendedahan yang kerap dapat menyebabkan kegagalan fungsi ginjal

3. Merkuri organik: menimbulkan degenerasi neuron di korteks cerebri dan cerebellum (pemecahan neuron secara kecil-kecilan) lalu  mengakibatkan kerosakan otak.
Kesan pada plasenta pula akan mengakibatkan kematian dalam kandungan dan cerebral palsy.



Edited by: dauswq
SUMBER: pom.go.id

LEES

Reply 3# chewan

    loorr bape tahun lg nk abis phd nih :@

Dzulqarnain

2 unsur toksik utama yg merosakkan sel manusia seluruh dunia secara halus:
1- Sulfur Oxides (SOx)
2- Chlorine (Cl2)*
Kita semua tnpa disedari menghadam/menyerap kedua²nya dlm kuantiti yg teramat kecil ('part-per-million', ppm) melalui:
- bekalan air 'bersih'/ditapis sbg minuman tanpa mendidihkannya terlebih dahulu
- 'emission'/ekzos drpd industri/enjin motor/stesen janakuasa ke dlm paru²
- etc.

auntie_girl

haiyoooooooooooooo....

aku bukan la nak backing ke hape...

ok, proses pengasingan emas guna merkuri ni kita panggil amalgamation....

aku tatau lombong emas south east len,tapi kalo kat mesia ni, kalo pon buat amalgamation ni hanyalah di peringkat lab sajork

utk proses, kebanyakan lombong emas proper kat negara kita ni guna cyanide....  sama ada teknik heap leach ke, resin in leach ke, carbon in leach ke bergantung pada jenis ore, cost analysis dan sebagainya

anyway, itu la gunanya ada SOP (ada yg panggil standard operating procedure ada yg panggil safe operating procedure).. b4 buat SOP kena buat HIRARC ataupon JSA....

kalo siapa belajar safety, mesti tau, PPE la step paling akhir dalam HIRARC...so, kalo nak buat keje2 neh,pakai la PPE,jangan tau nak amek short cut sajork:@

dalam pengetehuan cetekku ini,kebanyakan lombong kecik yg mana terdiri daripada lombong2 haram,kebanyakannya amek coarse gold je...kaedah melombong pon guna palong....tak rasa derang gigih nk guna merkuri bagai

tapi,ada jugak certain lombong, emas dia akan associate ngan merkuri kat indon nun bnyk  kalo kat mesia neh salunya dia associate ngan silver mahupon arsenik

chewan

haiyoooooooooooooo....

aku bukan la nak backing ke hape...

ok, proses pengasingan emas gu ...
auntie_girl Post at 25-11-2011 14:52

lombong mmg mmg byk arsenik

auntie_girl

lombong mmg mmg byk arsenik
chewan Post at 25-11-2011 16:17

    kalo kat indon tu depan siap leh kutip merkuri2 neh pas proses..sebab bnyk sgt merkuri

Dzulqarnain

Kdg², mana² unsur x bhy, tp bila nk proses je jd bahaya.
Spt penggunaan acid, etc. sisa²nya lg la bhy...

IRZeeBuk

dsbkan kerja aku kadang2 gune Hg,
aku g wat medical checkup tgk concentration Hg dlm bdn..
Alhamdulillah 3tahun nih Hg dlm bdn skit je..aku dlm lupe bape ppm
tp doc kate consider ok ler..
Kat Msia aku rase takdela byak sgt industri gune Hg.. pling2 cikai pun skit je

IRZeeBuk

Reply 9# chewan

Kadang arsenik kat msia nih wujud dr jenis tanah tuh sendiri..Cyanide maybe berkaitan ngan proses

IRZeeBuk

Reply 7# Dzulqarnain


  Cl2 bukan chlorine ke??

Dzulqarnain

Reply  Dzulqarnain


  Cl2 bukan chlorine ke??
IRZeeBuk Post at 19-12-2011 14:00

Sorry, typo*...~

mbhcsf

teringat merkuri  , teringat Minamata ....? does it ring nay bells? Teluk Minamata - keracunan merkuri ...

mbhcsf

antara Plumbum dan merkuri yg maan paking toxic pada  sistem saraf badan ?

sebab yg utama sekali kita kena tahu ialah logam toxic yg berat seperti merkury ( Hg) atau Lead (Pb) ni ... depa akan sebabkan kerosakan sistem saraf... - one of the known cause of neuropathy

type : neuropathy