Environmental Distribution and Risk of Exposure of Heavy Metal Pollutants From Lolgorian Artisanal Gold Mining in Kenya
Date
2022Author
Tampushi, Leonard L
Onyari, John M
Muthama, Nzioka J
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The aim of the study was to assess the distribution of heavy metals in the environmental compartments from artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) activities from Lolgorian, Kenya. The investigation was carried out using Inductively-Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). Mercury (p > 0.05) (p = 0.755), arsenic (p = 0.182), and lead (p = 0.430) mean concentrations in soil, water, sediments, and ore were not significantly different. The mean mercury, lead, and arsenic concentrations in the water were 0.66 mg/L, 0.46 mg/L, and 1.25 mg/L, respectively. In sediments, the mean values of Cr (66.65 mg/kg), Zn (45.62 mg/kg), Hg (24.63 mg/kg), Pb (22.35 mg/kg), Cd (0.90 mg/kg), and Mn (613.10 mg/kg) were found to be significantly higher. A positive correlation between ore-tailings (r = 0.971109), tailings-sediment (r = 0.9441036), and ore-sediment (r = 0.9441036), was observed indicating the presence of harmful heavy metals in the environment in excess of national and World Health Organization (WHO) recommended threshold, posing a high risk of multiple human exposure pathways.
Citation
Tampushi LL, Onyari JM, Muthama NJ. Environmental distribution and risk of exposure of Heavy Metal Pollutants from Lolgorian Artisanal Gold Mining in Kenya. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol. 2022 Aug;109(2):310-316. doi: 10.1007/s00128-022-03575-7. Epub 2022 Jul 4. PMID: 35786733.Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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