Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2013, 10, 5163-5177; doi:10.3390/ijerph10105163 OPEN ACCESS International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ISSN 1660-4601 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph Article Study on Association between Spatial Distribution of Metal Mines and Disease Mortality: A Case Study in Suxian District, South China Daping Song 1,2,†, Dong Jiang 2,†, Yong Wang 2,†, Wei Chen 1, Yaohuan Huang 2 and Dafang Zhuang 1,2,* 1 College of Resource and Environmental Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, 6 Weigang Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing 210095, China; E-Mails:
[email protected] (D.S.);
[email protected] (W.C.) 2 State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China; E-Mails:
[email protected] (D.J.);
[email protected] (Y.W.);
[email protected] (Y.H.) † These authors contributed equally to this work. * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +86-10-6485-5048; Fax: +86-10-6485-5049. Received: 13 August 2013; in revised form: 23 September 2013 / Accepted: 1 October 2013 / Published: 16 October 2013 Abstract: Metal mines release toxic substances into the environment and can therefore negatively impact the health of residents in nearby regions. This paper sought to investigate whether there was excess disease mortality in populations in the vicinity of the mining area in Suxian District, South China. The spatial distribution of metal mining and related activities from 1985 to 2012, which was derived from remote sensing imagery, was overlapped with disease mortality data.