Mercury to flower "soil" in El Callao
Sunday, August 24, 2008
For the researcher of the UCV, Meliton Adams, the mercury problem requires more involvement of state institutions because he believed investigations of mercury are personal initiatives, which weighs more vocation and the desire for science

Evelyn Guzman Bigotte


"We have a kind of collaboration in solidarity to carry forward the draft mercury, but we see that the problem has worsened and that there is a magnitude of activities required of the decision-making institutions." Wearing several months of feeling ill health. Not explaining the cause of that malaise. Never would have guessed that was sitting on a time bomb. His house had been built where it had been washed waste from the tail of the mills that used to separate gold miners. Not counting, the population of El Callao there are several housing estates whose floors were trustees of one of the most toxic metals to health. "These are sites that have high concentrations of mercury," warns professor and researcher at the Faculty of Agronomy of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), with a doctorate in soil chemistry, Meliton Adams who is in his scientific background a long way conducting research in the region Guiana, related to knowledge of biochemical cycle of mercury. Is your goal? Know where to move and what can be done to recover it.


Investigations Adams covered populations Bochinche, Las Claritas, Anacoco, sheet Lata, San Martin de Turumbán, La Fe and El Callao, located southeast of Bolivar state. The intention was to study the dynamics of mercury in the ecosystem, especially in soil, sediment, water, plants and fish. "But the commitment was greater when we take samples of hair of people exposed to mercury and are a serious problem of pollution that might be high risk."

Ambient RISKS

During his research noted that there are some high-risk environments, which includes the areas mills where the miners burned amalgam outdoors, without any protection, absorbing the mercury that comes out of this burning evaporated. "About 80% of total mercury is strongly retained by organic matter and soil sulphides, which suggests a low mobility of heavy metal", detailing the investigation.

Another of the sites concerned are the workshops where the goldsmiths melt the gold they purchased from miners. Likewise, some of the squares and parks in El Callao, which, at certain times, acquiring high concentrations of mercury.

"I understand that some estates that have been built, have been mounted on waste queues mills. These are sites that also have high concentrations of mercury. "

He mentioned that there are areas as the site where Peru, being a closed valley in which the mercury burned in different places, "the steam metal concentrates all the time with the wind, which moves in a closed circle."

Suggestions

The last phase of the project was based on rehabilitation, a process that consists in trying to eradicate the strategic sites of mercury pollution in soil. Among the recommendations arising from this investigation to clean up these risky environments, mentions the use of bacteria immobilizing mercury, which can work in flooded areas.

Explains the investigator of the UCV that can be applied as some amendments off the kaolinite, whose application along with the sulfate-reducing bacteria, immobilized mercury precipitation in the form insoluble. It adds that in the area of Km. 88 there is a reservoir of this type of clay which allows a low-cost sanitation.

Another strategy is posed by the use of plants bioaccumulation of mercury to extract what is found in gardens and courtyards of the houses. For this, suggests the use of vetiver species, which is a plant with which they have been doing field experiments and adjusting water levels to those without it cause problems in their growth. "Once the plant accumulates the metal should be burned, distil the mercury and have a responsible manner."

With regard to the recovery of mercury in hospitals, public squares and children's areas, one of the solutions offered are ovens.

First and foremost research

Meliton Adams believes that research on mercury in the country remain personal initiatives, which weighs more vocation and a willingness by the science that a state policy. "We have a kind of collaboration in solidarity to carry forward the draft mercury, but we see that the problem has worsened and that there is a magnitude of activities required of the decision-making institutions." Emphasizes the need to establish in the area "a permanent monitoring of mercury levels in fish mainly for human consumption and that there must be a laboratory for such monitoring, with qualified personnel and equipment updated."

"It is necessary to keep the investigation, I think the problem is a matter of dialogue, to understand that this is a problem of all, where each institution can provide knowledge and resources. Only you can not do. "

Intervene and educate

The investigator of UNIDO, Marcelo Veiga warns about the impact of mercury in the environment and human health. According to Veiga, mercury enters the environment when miners are unable to detain him, when doing the washing in the channels and when the amalgam is burned to mercury to separate gold. "Oxide, mercury remains in organisms and can accumulate over time. Oxidation occurs when the miners inhaled mercury vapors that are released during the burning process, "which can damage the nervous system by mercurial poisoning. To Veiga the only way to mitigate the impact of mercury on the health of the population with mining is "intervention and education. A people like El Callao that is fully turned to mining activity must diversify its economy. "