The institute is currently putting together a global inventory of polluted places with funding from the European Commission and UNIDO in an attempt to get a handle on the  extent of the problem.

And the problems created by the pollutants are not confined to the areas immediately surrounding these types of pollution. Mercury vapor, for instance, once burned off by the artisanal miners can drift high into the atmosphere where it crosses continents and even oceans before settling back to the ground. Once in the food chain it bio-accumulates (increases in concentration as it passes up the chain from plant to plant-eater to meat-eater) until it reaches top concentrations in predators such as tuna fish.

"Many of the toxins we find in our evaluation are transboundary and actually move from the point of emission over to our own ecosystem and food chain," Fuller notes. "So mercury from artisanal gold mining can end up in tuna to poison our own children."

6 Comments

1. 1. Nathaniel 06:38 PM 10/26/08

   Eliminate sewage altogether by adopting composting toilets and grey water recycling. The grey water could either be used for irrigation or processed in a similar fashion to how sewage is processed now. Since black water (containing human waste) is no longer in the system, it's much cleaner and easier to process. Basically we can all reduce water use, eliminate water contamination from human excriment, save the city a ton of money on waste water processing, and get free fertilizer. The city can even offer a free compost collection service, then turn around and sell the compost to farmers. Just doing that will eliminate a ton of polution.

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2. 2. eco-steve 06:33 AM 10/28/08

   I take it when you quote smog in cities, you include smoke particles in indoor kitchen fires, which are one of the worlds most important pollutants, causing millions of lung conditions?

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3. 3. eco-steve 06:36 AM 10/28/08

   In addition, kitchen smoke-related disease can be eliminated by adopting charcoal burners, thereby avoiding what are in reality thousands of millions of sick children and adults.

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4. 4. urichj 12:36 PM 11/19/08

   regarging the smalter at La Oroya, you failed to mention that the Peruvian govrnemnt owned that plant for 20+ years and literally ran it into the ground. Since Doe Run purchased the plant they have invested hundreds of millions of dollars on the air and water pollution measures. They have installed three water treatment plants where none existed before, and they have installed dozens of air pollution control devices. They are emiting less that 1/3 of what was being elited under the government's control. Additionally they are under increasing pressure from the Peruvian government to do even more. To say there is no oversight is irresponsible and misleading.

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5. 5. reace 09:49 AM 5/12/10

   i think we should take more care of our enviroment.

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6. 6. harmoniousliving in reply to Nathaniel 03:29 PM 5/24/11

   i like your views on this subject. i am researching a paper on global pollution and would like to discuss this particular area of recycling. if interested please reply to my profile... thank you
   

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