Population exposure to trace elements in the Kilembe copper mine area, Western Uganda: a pilot study

The mining and processing of copper in Kilembe, Western Uganda, from 1956 to 1982 left over 15 Mt. of tailings containing cupriferous and cobaltiferous pyrite dumped within a mountain river valley. This pilot study was conducted to assess the nature and extent of risk to local populations from metal contamination arising from those mining activities. We determined trace element concentrations in mine tailings, soils, locally cultivated foods,house dust, drinking water and human biomarkers (toenails) using ICP-MS analysis of acid digested samples. The results showed that tailings, containing higher concentrations of Co, Cu, Ni and As compared with world average crust values had eroded and contaminated local soils. Pollution load indices revealed that 51% of agricultural soils sampled were contaminated with trace elements. Local water supplies were contaminated, with Co concentrations that exceeded Wisconsin (US) thresholds in 25% of domestic water supplies and 40% of Nyamwamba river water samples. Zinc exceeded WHO/FAO thresholds of 99.4 mg kg−1 in 36% of Amaranthus vegetable samples, Cu exceeded EC thresholds of 20 mg kg−1 in 19% of Amaranthus while Pb exceeded WHO thresholds of 0.3 mg kg−1 in 47% of Amaranthus vegetables. In bananas, 20% of samples contained Pb concentrations that exceeded the WHO/FAO recommended threshold of 0.3 mg kg−1. However, risk assessment of local foods and water, based on hazard quotients (HQ values) revealed no potential health effects. The high external contamination of volunteers' toenails with some elements (even after a washing process) calls into question their use as a biomarker for metal exposure in human populations where feet are frequently exposed to soil

Strategic risk appraisal. Comparing expert- and literature-informed consequence assessments for environmental policy risks receiving national attention

Strategic risk appraisal (SRA) has been applied to compare diverse policy level risks to and from the environment in England and Wales. Its application has relied on expert-informed assessments of the potential consequences from residual risks that attract policy attention at the national scale. Here we compare consequence assessments, across environmental, economic and social impact categories that draw on ‘expert’- and ‘literature-based’ analyses of the evidence for 12 public risks appraised by Government. For environmental consequences there is reasonable agreement between the two sources of assessment, with expert-informed assessments providing a narrower dispersion of impact severity and with median values similar in scale to those produced by an analysis of the literature. The situation is more complex for economic consequences, with a greater spread in the median values, less consistency between the two assessment types and a shift toward higher severity values across the risk portfolio. For social consequences, the spread of severity values is greater still, with no consistent trend between the severities of impact expressed by the two types of assessment. For the latter, the findings suggest the need for a fuller representation of socioeconomic expertise in SRA and the workshops that inform SRA output

New Jersey's Environment 2000

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is committed to managing New Jersey's environment to ensure clean air, clean and plentiful waters, safe and abundant open space, and an overall high quality of life. To manage our environment we must be able to measure it. That means using sound science to assess the current state of our environment, evaluating the effectiveness of past efforts by looking at historic improvement trends, developing goals and strategies for future improvement, and forging partnerships with our constituents to meet our targets. Released in November 2001, New Jersey's Environment 2000 is the second state of the environment report for New Jersey. It is one in a series of interrelated documents that uses environmental indicators to help us provide a comprehensive look at the state's environmental quality, achievements as well as remaining challenges to citizens of New Jersey