It is said to be the only metal that presents itself in liquid form at room temperature. Perhaps its deceptive nature adds to it being one of the most dangerous but silent killers of our time.
In its raw state, it is used by small scale miners to extract gold, making it the worst pollutant in the world after the burning of fossil fuels.
It is also extracted from electronic-waste (e-waste) such as computers. E-waste burnt at dump sites in places such as Agbogbloshie, poses health hazards to humans and also contaminates foodstuffs sold at the market.
The Odaw River passes through Agbogbloshie carrying materials from burning sites into gutters and rivers from which water is collected for the numerous vegetable farms situated in the area while the air is also polluted and inhaled by thousands of people who live and work in the area known as Sodom and Gomorra, a densely populated slum.
Mercury is said to be the cause of more than 50 illnesses and diseases, notable among them being Addison's disease, Alzheimer's, asthma, attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder, autoimmune disease, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, candidiasis, chronic fatigue, colitis, depression, environmental illness, fibromyalgia, gastritis, infertility, insomnia and irritable bowel syndrome.
Others are juvenile arthritis, learning disabilities, lupus erythromatosus, manic depression, multiple chemical sensitivities, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic attacks, Parkinson's disease, pervasive developmental disorder, psychosis, rheumatoid arthritis, schizophrenia, sciatica, sleep disorders and yeast syndrome, among others.
Acute mercury exposure can affect gastrointestinal and respiratory systems. In some cases, mercury poisoning can lead to inflammation of the mouth, loose teeth, ulcerated and bleeding gums. It can also cause certain digestive tract problems such as diarrhoea, inflamed colon and stomach cramps, respiratory problems such as persistent coughing and emphysema and cardiovascular problems such as blood pressure changes, weak pulse and chest pain.
At a national forum in Accra quite recently on the health problems caused by exposure to mercury, the Head of the Public Health Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Philip K. Amoo, disclosed that many of the kidney recorded deaths among people between the ages of 35 and 45, were due to “heavy metal deposition in the kidney leading to kidney failure.
Mercury, according to health experts, is an extremely reactive toxic element, which can cause a number of hazardous effects on ones health. The severity of health effects of mercury poisoning depends upon the duration and dose of exposure, the chemical form of the mercury, route of exposure and the age and health of the person exposed. It can cause severe damage to the central nervous system.
According to the Ghana Health Service (GHSS), mercury is a known toxic substance that is harmful to especially pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants and young children with the most sensitive group being foetuses.
Foetuses exposed to mercury are prone to decreased birth weight and muscle tone, developmental delay, seizure disorders, deafness, blindness and spasticity.
Poisoning from mercury occurs when a person inhales or ingests or the skin or eye come into contact with mercury. Mercury is widely found in water, soil and air in various forms. Methylmercury is an extremely poisonous form of mercury. It is formed when mercury present in the air gets deposited onto land or into water and is seized upon by certain microorganisms.
Mercury poisoning can also be caused by the consumption of fish that has been contaminated with mercury or through direct exposure to some mercury-containing products. This exposure can affect the immune system and other organs, including the heart, lungs, brain and kidneys. It also travels thousands of miles in the atmosphere, settling in oceans and river beds.
According to the Executive Director of Ecological Restorations, Mr Emmanuel Odjam-Akumatey, the devastation caused by widespread mining is easy to spot, as areas where such activities are undertaken present huge swathes of the forest turned to barren desert, but the damage caused by the heavy use of mercury is more difficult to detect.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a person who consumes two servings of mercury contaminated fish per week is getting seven-and-a-half times the safe limit of mercury into his or her body.
In Ghana thousands of people are involved in small scale mining, and according to Kwame Owusu, who 15 years ago was involved in the mining business in Hyediam, a mining community near Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region, he is still suffering from skin infections and has developed permanent red eyes as a result of the use of mercury to extract gold.
Similarly, tens of thousands of remote mining sites have sprung up mostly in communities where big mining firms are located, such as Obuasi, Tarkwa and Sunyani and the usage tons of mercury each year has ravaged the nervous system of miners and their families.
The use of mercury in gold mining is illegal in many countries because it is toxic to both human health and the environment but small scale miners continue to use the substance as it is the cheapest, quickest and easiest way of extracting this precious mineral whose price continue to soar on the world market.
In gold mines, as much as one to three grams of mercury are lost for every gram of gold produced. But mercury is a slow and silent killer, so miners scoff at health concerns. They breath mercury fumes and handle the toxic liquid for years with no problems.
Human-generated sources of mercury exposure are a major cause of mercury poisoning. Mercury exposure can occur from breathing contaminated air or due to inadequate use or disposal of mercury-containing products, such as computers, batteries, thermometers or fluorescent light bulbs.
Ghana is identified as a dumping ground for e-waste from developed countries such as used computers, used mobile phones, old fridges and other electronic gadgets which are imported for a cheaper prize or are given as donations to schools and non-governmental organisations.
The Director of the Education Department of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr Emmanuel Salu, identifies that apart from e-waste coming from outside the country, e-waste is also generated locally as most Ghanaians have no idea what to do with their obsolete mobile phones, TV sets, sound systems, refrigerators, air conditioners, computers and CFL lamps and therefore dump them at repair shops and refuse dumps.
With the onset of globalisation, there is a sharp increase in e-waste in Ghana from developed countries which, according to Mr Salu, has neither been matched with policy and regulatory mechanisms nor with infrastructure. He disclosed that only 13 per cent of e-waste is recycled with or without safety procedures.
To him, the country is doing very little to control the situation because of the high demand for the use of such gadgets in the cities and rural areas.
Despite the hazards caused by exposure to mercury, local and international civil societies, including Ecological Restoration, are concerned that the importation and buying of mercury is as easy as doing any other business and that the international trade in mercury is largely unregulated.
According to them, a total of 55 countries across the world where small-scale gold mining is rife, including Ghana, lack the political will or capacity to prevent the toxic metal from falling into the hands of small scale miners who use the substance indiscriminately.
Although mercury has beneficial uses in areas such as dentistry where it is used for repairing cavities, it is diverted and sold to the gold mines instead, where it can fetch prices 10 times higher its original price.
By the 20th century, mining companies had abandoned mercury in favour of chemicals like cyanide. But small-scale miners like it because according to them, it is easy to use, fast, cheap and leaves the gold cleaner.
In Ghana the importation of the liquid metal is regulated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and according to concerned civil society organisations, this shows the lack of seriousness attached to the importation and use of such a dangerous substance as it is treated as a commodity and not a dangerous substance which needs to be protected from getting into the wrong hands.
Solutions needed
According to Mr Odjam-Akumatey, the question in Ghana now is how to reconfigure public policy, businesses and infrastructure to ensure better returns from development choices in terms of natural, human and financial capital. This necessitates law and markets working together at national, regional and international levels to coherently align economic, environmental and human health goals.
To Mr Salu there is the need for a national collection point for items like used mobile phone batteries, disused CFC bulbs and TV circuit boards which contain mercury.
In his opinion, there is the need for a national policy on e-waste to deal with importation and dumping of old products into the country and the empowerment of national institutions to tackle the problem as a national priority.
According to him a project dubbed the 'E-waste Africa Project' which was developed as part of the Basel Convention aims at enhancing the capacity of African countries in Ghana, Benin, Egypt, Liberia, Nigeria, Tunisia to tackle e-waste imports from the developed world.
Activities under the project include surveys, development of tools for assessing e-waste management, addressing the sound management, testing and certification of second hand products.
To him, the project has a potential to contribute to poverty alleviation by developing market opportunities for trade and export of recovered materials.
The project will also help artisans improve on recycling of electrical and electronic equipment and assist the Ghana EPA to control transboundary movements of e-waste and prevent illegal traffic of such waste.
As part of the way forward, the EPA, he said, in close collaboration with Vodafone is to set up a system to collect used mobile phone batteries at designation centres in Ghana
This will create the needed education to take mobile phone batteries and spoilt phones from the system for recycling .
Another project undertaken by the agency is to find best practices for people in the waste sector so as to recover useful materials from the e-waste through proper methods and training.
Also he suggests the need for proper education so that residents, especially in Accra, do not throw e-waste into water bodies as the Korle Lagoon restoration project in Accra has found that most of the waste found in the lagoon are used computer parts
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