Towards the ban on mercury

IN October 2013 under the previous administration, Guyana signed the Minamata Convention, an international treaty intended to protect our health and the environment from the harmful effects of mercury. That treaty committed the country to gradually reduce the use of mercury. After the change of government, in October 2017, President David Granger went further: His Excellency said that the administration’s goal is the total elimination of the use of mercury by 2027.

The universal agreement that mercury is harmful and should be eliminated is well founded. Mercury is one of the most poisonous substances on earth, and its effects on human health are horrific.

Mercury is a liquid metal used primarily in gold-mining. Mercury is mixed with ore containing gold to form an amalgam, unwanted material is washed away, the amalgam is heated to burn off the mercury, and the gold is left behind. The process is simple and cheap. Given that gold-mining is a major cash-earner in Guyana, there is widespread use of large quantities of mercury. The problem is that the mercury vapour released when the amalgam is heated is highly poisonous and can cause serious health problems if it is inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Mercury can also enter the body when it goes into streams or creeks, and the water is used for drinking or cooking, or contaminated fish from polluted streams are eaten.

The effects of mercury poisoning depend on how much is absorbed by the body, and how long a person is exposed. Moderate mercury poisoning can cause weakness, numbness about the body, skin rashes or peeling, itching, body pain, sweating, sleeplessness and other symptoms.

Larger doses of the poison can cause memory problems, psychiatric disorders, difficulty hearing, speaking, and seeing, mental retardation, and damage to the kidneys, liver, and brain. Such damage may be permanent, even when the person is removed from exposure to the poison. Children are at particular risk because their fragile bodies are still developing. Worse still, the effects of mercury are cumulative, in other words, the poison builds up in the body and the effects get worse as time passes.

Eventually, if the victim is not removed from the source of the poison, death occurs when the body absorbs about one gram of mercury.

Last June, the staff of the Guyana Gold Board were relocated after concerns were raised that their workplace, at which amalgam was burned, was contaminated by mercury. In July, the Guyana Water Inc announced that unsafe levels of mercury were found in the Kaituma River in Region One, and alternative sources of potable water had to be sourced at great cost, for use by villagers.

Evidently, although miners prefer to use mercury because the process is cheap and easy, the cost to the country’s taxpayers who must foot the bills to treat those affected by the poison, far outweighs any benefits. Further, potential loss of health, threat to life, and contamination of the environment may be unquantifiable.

The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) must be commended for conceding the point that mercury is a threat. However, the representative body, so far, opposes a total ban on mercury, claiming that there is no alternative. This claim, though, is false: there are several processes that do not involve mercury, which can be used for gold-extraction.

Alternatives to mercury-based extraction include concentration methods, chemical leaching, sluicing, magnetic separation, flotation separation, shaking tables, centrifuges, spiral concentrators, vortex concentrators, and direct smelting, among others. Although those methods and devices are more complex and may be somewhat more expensive, the long-term benefits more than compensate for any short-term inconvenience to miners. Government is therefore to be commended for taking a strong position on this issue by declaring – through action – that the well-being of its citizens, wildlife, and environment are of paramount importance. And all Guyanese, including miners, are urged to support the objective of mercury elimination.

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