Proof of concept for a passive sampler for monitoring of gaseous elemental mercury in artisanal gold mining
| dc.contributor.author | Santos, Elias de Barros | |
| dc.contributor.author | Moher, Paleah | |
| dc.contributor.author | Ferlin, Stacy | |
| dc.contributor.author | Fostier, Anne Hélène | |
| dc.contributor.author | Mazali, Italo Odone | |
| dc.contributor.author | Telmer, Kevin | |
| dc.contributor.author | Brolo, Alexandre G. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-03-13T05:25:08Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-03-13T05:25:08Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2017 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2017 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Mercury emissions from artisanal gold mining operations occurring in roughly 80 developing countries are a major workplace health hazard for millions of people as well as the largest contributor to global mercury pollution. There are no portable, cheap, and rapid methods able to inform workers or health practitioners of mercury exposure on site in remote locations. In this work, a proof of concept for a miniaturized mercury sampler, prepared by the direct reduction of gold into the porous nanostructures of Vycor glass (PVG), is introduced. Mercury retention on the PVG/Au sampler induces significant color changes, due to the formation of Au-Hg amalgam that affects the surface plasmon resonance characteristics of the material. The color change can potentially be quantified by the analysis of pictures obtained with a cell phone camera rapidly and onsite. Laboratory experiments showed the viability of using PVG/Au as passive sampler for monitoring of Hg°. PVG/Au samplers were then deployed in an artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) operations in Burkina Faso and it was able to indicate personal mercury exposures. The amount of mercury quantified in the samplers for all miners was higher than the current personal exposure limit set by the US Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). | en_US |
| dc.description.reviewstatus | Reviewed | en_US |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Faculty | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | We thank the financial support provided by the following grants: FAPESP grant 2016/03559-7 (AHF, EBS); FAPESP grant 2013/22127-2 (IOM); FAPESP grant 2014/50906-9 (IOM); NSERC Discovery Grants (AGB and KT); the United States Department of State (USDoS) award#S-LMAQM-15-GR-1178 (KT); and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) - project no. GF/RAF/12/001 (KT). EBS and PM acknowledge post-doctoral fellowships from CNPq (Science Without Borders) and CIHR, respectively. We would like to express our gratitude to the miners in Burkina Faso who participated in this study. We thank the Artisanal Gold Council, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Mines, and Ministry of Health of Burkina Faso, for their support and the opportunity to apply the PVG/Au samplers in an operating ASGM site in Burkina Faso. All methodologies were reviewed by the University of Victoria Human Ethics Committee (approval number 13-352), and were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and all applicable amendments. Full informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study. Finally, the authors would like to thank the Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano, Campinas-SP, Brazil) for HRTEM analysis. Also, we thank the University of Victoria for ICP-MS and UV-vis analysis and access to other facilities. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | Santos, E.; Moher, P.; Ferlin, S.; Fostier, A. H.; Mazali, I. O.; Telmer, K.; & Brolo, A. G. (2017). Proof of concept for a passive sampler for monitoring of gaseous elemental mercury in artisanal gold mining. Scientific Reports, 7, article 16513. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-16713-7 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-16713-7 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/10647 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Scientific Reports | en_US |
| dc.title | Proof of concept for a passive sampler for monitoring of gaseous elemental mercury in artisanal gold mining | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |