Mercury Exposure in Ukraine
High levels of mercury are present in Gorlovka, Ukraine (pop. 320,000), due to mining and processing of mercury that ceased in 1991, leaving a series of abandoned open pits, a defunct mercury extraction plant (Figure 1), extensive mine tailings, and several tailings ponds. Past use of extreme mercury-enriched coal (Figure 2), produced as a byproduct of mercury mining, and current industrial use of local coal from nearby mines, pose potential hazards to Gorlovka. An integrated environmental/human health study is underway to define mercury exposure levels, assess possible health effects to exposed individuals, and determine the feasibility of further epidemiologic studies on a larger scale. The study, Feasibility of Assessing Health Risks from Long-term Mercury Exposure in Gorlovka, Ukraine funded by the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation, is part of USGS studies on health effects of inorganic substances in coal.
Figure 1. Defunct mercury processing plant at Nikitovka Mines, Gorlovka, Ukraine, operated from 1968 to 1991. A small portion of this site is currently used to recycle fluorescent lamps and batteries to recover mercury. Photo by Allan Kolker, USGS.
Figure 2. Average mercury content of four Nikitovka coal samples collected by USGS scientists and collaborators at Donetsk National Technical University, compared to mercury in active mines of the region and U.S. averages for in-ground coal, and for the Warrior Basin of northern Alabama. U.S. coal data are from Bragg et al., 1998. Note break in vertical scale between 1 and 10 ppm mercury.
Current work on human mercury exposure in Gorlovka began in August, 2005, following a more general study of mercury-rich coals in the region, funded by the NATO Science Program (Figure 2). In the current study, a group of 30 workers at a mercury recycling facility on the site of the defunct mercury extraction plant was selected for sampling hair, nails, blood, and urine, to assess their mercury exposure. In conjunction with tissue sampling, environmental samples were taken to assess mercury levels and potential exposure near the mercury mines and over a larger and over a larger portion of Gorlovka (Figure 3). Additional tissue sampling is planned for non-exposed individuals in Gorlovka and in a nearby control municipality. Our work in Ukraine has the potential to be an important case study of human exposure to mercury.
Figure 3. Environmental sampling in Gorlovka by Kathryn Conko (USGS) to assess exposure of residents to mercury. Photo by Allan Kolker, USGS.
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U.S. Geological Survey
