Arsenic Toenails
By Catalyst, ABC Television, Australia, March 11, 2010
Watch the video at: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2843289.htm
Is the glittering prosperity from Australia's gold mining being tarnished by the environmental impact of extraction techniques? Dr Paul Willis meets up with researchers from the University of Ballarat who are collecting children's toenails to find out how much arsenic they contain.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Kinross Gold Corporation meets Ali Baba on the Hill of the Souls
Kinross Gold Corporation meets Ali Baba on the Hill of the Souls
By Cylene Gama, from Paracatu-MG, Brazil, April 11, 2010
In the tale of ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ the treasure is in a cave, the mouth of which is sealed by magic. It opens on the words ‘Open Sesame’, and seals itself on the words ‘Close Sesame’.
Canadian Kinross Gold Corporation is longing to put its craws on a treasure hidden in the Hill of the Souls at Paracatu, northwestern Minas Gerais State, Brazil. However, the Hill is sealed by a malediction long known by the Bacuen Indians, also known as the ‘Tapuias’. The Hill of the Souls was sacred for the Bacuen who believed that disturbing the hill would cause it to release evil souls.
By Cylene Gama, from Paracatu-MG, Brazil, April 11, 2010
In the tale of ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ the treasure is in a cave, the mouth of which is sealed by magic. It opens on the words ‘Open Sesame’, and seals itself on the words ‘Close Sesame’.
Canadian Kinross Gold Corporation is longing to put its craws on a treasure hidden in the Hill of the Souls at Paracatu, northwestern Minas Gerais State, Brazil. However, the Hill is sealed by a malediction long known by the Bacuen Indians, also known as the ‘Tapuias’. The Hill of the Souls was sacred for the Bacuen who believed that disturbing the hill would cause it to release evil souls.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Drinking-water-for-poison swap
Nothing in the drinking-water-for-poison swap in Paracatu makes sense except down the corruption pipeline
By Sergio U. Dani, from Göttingen, April 4, 2010
The Santa Isabel river is drying up. It has lost 3 billion liters of water in the last 18 years. Since 1996 this river has been the main source of drinking water for the 84 thousand inhabitants of Paracatu, a city located in the northwestern part of the Minas Gerais State, Brazil.
Until 1996, water supply to this 300 year old city relied upon the Rico Creek and water springs and wells located within the city and in the neighbour Santa Rita river basin. Beginning in 1987, an open pit gold mine has destroyed the waterheads of Rico Creek, and has contributed to the depletion or contamination the city’s wells.
Now the Santa Rita waterheads, which are considered the earliest and most valuable source of drinking water out of the urban environment of Paracatu – the water used to be delivered to the city by gravity through the famous “Master of Field Trench” – are at risk of being transformed into a deposit of over one billion tons of toxic mine tailings.
The tailings will contain one million tons of arsenic which is enough poison to kill billions of people. Besides directly destroying the sources of drinking water, mining activities are contaminating groundwater with poison and acid drainage.
By Sergio U. Dani, from Göttingen, April 4, 2010
The Santa Isabel river is drying up. It has lost 3 billion liters of water in the last 18 years. Since 1996 this river has been the main source of drinking water for the 84 thousand inhabitants of Paracatu, a city located in the northwestern part of the Minas Gerais State, Brazil.
Until 1996, water supply to this 300 year old city relied upon the Rico Creek and water springs and wells located within the city and in the neighbour Santa Rita river basin. Beginning in 1987, an open pit gold mine has destroyed the waterheads of Rico Creek, and has contributed to the depletion or contamination the city’s wells.
Now the Santa Rita waterheads, which are considered the earliest and most valuable source of drinking water out of the urban environment of Paracatu – the water used to be delivered to the city by gravity through the famous “Master of Field Trench” – are at risk of being transformed into a deposit of over one billion tons of toxic mine tailings.
The tailings will contain one million tons of arsenic which is enough poison to kill billions of people. Besides directly destroying the sources of drinking water, mining activities are contaminating groundwater with poison and acid drainage.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Something in the water
Interview: Something in the water
From Metallomics, 24 February 2010
Bibudhendra Sarkar talks to May Copsey about metalloenzymes, helping sick children and hunting for toxic metals in the environment Bibudhendra Sarkar is an Emeritus Professor at The University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. His major research interests are in the area of metal-related genetic diseases with a special emphasis on Wilson and Menkes diseases and studying the effects of toxic metals in the environment and their impact on human health. He is also a member of the Metallomics editorial board.
From Metallomics, 24 February 2010
Bibudhendra Sarkar talks to May Copsey about metalloenzymes, helping sick children and hunting for toxic metals in the environment Bibudhendra Sarkar is an Emeritus Professor at The University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. His major research interests are in the area of metal-related genetic diseases with a special emphasis on Wilson and Menkes diseases and studying the effects of toxic metals in the environment and their impact on human health. He is also a member of the Metallomics editorial board.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
MIMER Notes, February 14, 2010
Arsenic on the rise. Scientific publications on arsenic are on the rise. A survey on publications indexed in PubMed in the period 1990-2009 shows that the number of annual publications on arsenic have increased at a higher rate relatively to publications on mercury, cadmium and lead, which are considered the most important metal pollutants (Figure).
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