| What's
New:
Research Briefs
2002
2001
Center Updates
2002
2001
2000
|
Center Update
2002
June
20, 2002
Dartmouth Students Investigate Gold Mining Legacy in Nicaragua
 |
|
Halfway between the gravel airstrip where Joel Wickre landed for his internship
in Nicaragua and the university that was to house him, the pickup truck
broke down. He and his companions made the rest of the trip to the town
of Siuna on foot. Reliable transportation can't be taken for granted in
this remote and rugged region of Nicaragua; neither can clean water.
Wickre, a Dartmouth senior, is working on a pilot project funded by the
Center for Environmental Health Sciences and the Tucker Foundation’s
Cross Cultural Service Initiative to study and document suspected contamination
of drinking water and soil in this mountain town of 18,000 people. A six-hour
drive from the Atlantic coast — twelve hours from the capital city
of Managua —Siuna has a high indigenous population, 90 percent unemployment
and the legacy of pollution from a defunct gold mine.
The people of
Siuna make their living by growing corn, beans and fruit, and raising
cows. Some pan for gold in the abandoned mine sites, or from hand-dug
pits in the ground. In the middle of the town, near the market and several
neighborhoods, lies a lagoon — an abandoned mine pit that has filled
with water in the decade since the mine ceased operating. The lagoon empties
into a river that is a source of water for bathing and washing clothes.
Called El Cianuro (the Cyanide), the river is aptly named.
Cyanide and other toxins often contaminate former mine sites as a result
of the mining process. Chemicals such as cyanide are used in the process
of extracting elemental gold from ore. In addition, mining — in
this case, gold — brings other metals up to the surface, along with
the one desired. Mine tailings, the mud left after the gold ore has been
extracted, fill a valley in the region. Scientists believe it is likely
that soil throughout the area contains also arsenic and mercury, besides
cyanide.
When a team of
Dartmouth faculty and students coordinated by Dartmouth’s Tucker
Foundation first visited Siuna in December 2001 to offer educational resources
and medical care, they found that the water from shallow wells and streams
often teems with parasites and bacteria. Infections from unclean water
are a chronic problem. Scientists speculate that toxic metals from the
mine may also contaminate the water, which could have tremendous health
implications for the town’s residents. Arsenic, for example, has
been linked to various forms of cancer, and mercury affects the nervous
system. The Tucker Foundation trip in December established that clean
water was the largest concern in the area.
"People know the water is terrible," says Wickre, but with few
medical facilities and very little money, it has been very difficult to
document health problems and find any correlation between these problems
and the pollution from the mine. Additionally, the tight squeezing of
the national budget mandated by the World Bank to facilitate loan repayment
has caused the privatization of many national service providers, including
those providing water. The private companies that now provide services
such as water only provide to towns that can pay for the service, which
Siuna cannot. So the people of Siuna have neither a clean alternative
nor documentation of their problem.
With mentoring from epidemiology researchers Margaret Karagas Ph.D, Angeline
Andrew Ph.D., and Madeline Dalton Ph.D., and chemist Stefan Stürup
Ph.D, all from Dartmouth's Center for Environmental Health Sciences, Joel
Wickre developed a study to document effects from the mine on the local
water supply through a Center internship. The Center is funding the scientific
study, including sampling and analysis, and the Tucker Foundation provided
funding for the trip. The study is investigating whether metal contamination
is a health threat and whether arsenic and cyanide concentrations in Siuna
are above safe levels
 |
Siuna, Nicaragua |
In April 2002,
Joel and fellow undergraduate researcher Katie Martin, also a senior,
carried out the field component of the project. With students from the
university in Siuna, they interviewed mothers of selected families living
in the town about their water sources and purification, food consumption,
and lifestyle — all in Spanish. They then collected hair and toenail
samples from each family member, water and dust samples from each house
and recorded the location of the house using a Global Positioning System.
The team plans to map the area, correlating areas of contamination with
the data they have collected. They also took samples of all the water
sources used by the town to investigate potential clean water sources.
Back at Dartmouth, Joel is analyzing the data with the help of Stefan
Stürup, director of Dartmouth's Trace Element Analysis Lab, and other
faculty. Dartmouth undergraduate Kelly Miller has joined the project and
is helping to analyze the samples. The students plan to write up their
research results and return to Siuna to make presentations to local organizations
and leaders.
The project dovetails with plans by Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business
to visit Siuna to discuss a long-term plan for Dartmouth's involvement
with the community. With local organizations, the Tuck group will consider
the feasibility of a public-private partnership that would pair private
funding with the local government, non-profit and non-governmental organizations.
This could facilitate the establishment of clinics, micro-loans for women,
and other social services that could pave the way for improved health
conditions and sustainable development.
Bethany Fleishman
St. Lawrence University '03
Summer Science Writing Intern
Center for Environmental Health Sciences
|
