A Cross-Sectional Survey on Knowledge and Perceptions of Health Risks Associated with Arsenic and Mercury Contamination from Artisanal Gold mining in Tanzania.

An estimated 0.5 to 1.5 million informal miners, of whom 30-50% are women, rely on artisanal mining for their livelihood in Tanzania. Mercury, used in the processing gold ore, and arsenic, which is a constituent of some ores, are common occupational exposures that frequently result in widespread environmental contamination. Frequently, the mining activities are conducted haphazardly without regard for environmental, occupational, or community exposure. The primary objective of this study was to assess community risk knowledge and perception of potential mercury and arsenic toxicity and/or exposure from artisanal gold mining in Rwamagasa in northwestern Tanzania. A cross-sectional survey of respondents in five sub-villages in the Rwamagasa Village located in Geita District in northwestern Tanzania near Lake Victoria was conducted. This area has a history of artisanal gold mining and many of the population continue to work as miners. Using a clustered random selection approach for recruitment, a total of 160 individuals over 18 years of age completed a structured interview. The interviews revealed wide variations in knowledge and risk perceptions concerning mercury and arsenic exposure, with 40.6% (n=65) and 89.4% (n=143) not aware of the health effects of mercury and arsenic exposure respectively. Males were significantly more knowledgeable (n=59, 36.9%) than females (n=36, 22.5%) with regard to mercury (x²=3.99, p<0.05). An individual's occupation category was associated with level of knowledge (x²=22.82, p=<0.001). Individuals involved in mining (n=63, 73.2%) were more knowledgeable about the negative health effects of mercury than individuals in other occupations. Of the few individuals (n=17, 10.6%) who knew about arsenic toxicity, the majority (n=10, 58.8%) were miners. The knowledge of individuals living in Rwamagasa, Tanzania, an area with a history of artisanal gold mining, varied widely with regard to the health hazards of mercury and arsenic. In these communities there was limited awareness of the threats to health associated with exposure to mercury and arsenic. This lack of knowledge, combined with minimal environmental monitoring and controlled waste management practices, highlights the need for health education, surveillance, and policy changes

Effect of Chinese policies on rare earth supply chain resilience

Rare earths elements (REE) are considered as strategic resources because they interact with business and governments’ direct policy interventions. Policy interventions can have a major effect on security of rare earth supply (Kooroshy et al., 2015). The purpose of this study is to scrutinize China’s REE policies and its impacts on the supply chain resilience. We analyze the supply chain dynamics by specifically targeting a number of Chinese REE policies that have disruptive tendencies. We analyze various policies placing the price at the center as an overarching feedback loop. In other words, we focus on how price responds to various resilience influencing mechanisms such as diversity of supply, regulatory frameworks, and stockpiling. In the process, we investigate Chinese influence on rest of the world (RoW) supply chain and dynamics inside the Chinese supply chain as there are two different layers of supply chain one for China and another one for rest of the world. We show that the supply chain is a complex phenomenon and resilience of a system is not solely dependent on physical disruptions but also on dynamic factors such as societal and geo-political (eg. environmental regulation, speculative market and export ban). We identify links and interdependencies even where data is not readily available and examine how the overall system reacts to various constraints and disruptions.Industrial Ecolog