ACTIVITY REPORT No. 33 Reducing the Environmental and Health Impacts of Mercury and Cyanide in Gold-Mining in Nicaragua March 1997 by Joana Rosario and Steven K. Ault Prepared for the USAID Mission to Nicaragua with funding provided through the Environmental Initiatives for the Americas program, under EHP Activity No. 245-CC Environmental Health Project Contract No. HRN-5994-C-00-3036-00, Project No. 936-5994 is sponsored by the Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support and Research Office of Health and Nutrition U.S. Agency for International Development Washington, DC 20523 CONTENTS ABOUT THE AUTHORS.............................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................................. v ACRONYMS ...................................................................... vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................ix MAP..............................................................................xi 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................ 1 1.1 The Context and Setting ................................................. 1 1.2 Objective of the Activity................................................. 3 1.3 Methodology .......................................................... 3 2 ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCES .............................................. 8 2.1 Government of Nicaragua ................................................ 8 2.1.1 Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) .......... 8 2.1.2 Ministry of Health (MINSA) ....................................... 8 2.2 GTZ ................................................................. 9 2.3 HEMCO/Greenstone ................................................... 10 2.4 Other International Donors/Organizations .................................. 11 2.4.1 The Nature Conservancy (TNC) .................................... 11 2.4.2 Peace Corps ................................................... 11 2.4.3 European Community ............................................ 11 2.5 Local Organizations .................................................... 12 2.5.1 Mayangna Representatives ........................................ 12 2.5.2 Religion in Mayangna Communities ................................ 13 2.5.3 Language in Mayangna Communities ............................... 13 2.6 ASPEMINAS ......................................................... 13 2.7 Laboratories in Nicaragua ............................................... 14 2.7.1 University of Leon .............................................. 14 2.7.2 MINSA ....................................................... 14 2.7.3 CIRA/UNAN .................................................. 14 2.7.4 Bengoechea Laboratory .......................................... 15 2.7.5 Other Laboratories .............................................. 15 3 ISSUES.................................................................... 16 3.1 Community Awareness of Health Risks .................................... 16 3.2 Levels of Human Exposure to Mercury ..................................... 17 3.3 Recruitment of Participants .............................................. 19 i 3.4 Limited Human and Material Resources .................................... 19 3.5 Impediments to Environmental Sampling in the Area.......................... 19 4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................... 21 4.1 Health Professionals ................................................... 21 4.2 Laboratory Analytical Support ........................................... 21 4.3 Mercury Contamination ................................................. 21 4.4 Environmental Sampling ................................................ 22 4.5 Safe Water Supply and Sanitation (Excreta Disposal) ......................... 22 REFERENCES..................................................................... 24 ANNEXES A Health Effects and Regulatory Standards for Mercury................................ 25 B Point Sources of Mercury Contamination ......................................... 27 C Retorts..................................................................... 29 D Videotape of Gold Mining, Mercury Use and Retorts................................ 39 TABLES 1 Mercury Concentrations in Hair Samples of Miners and Adult Community Dwellers....... 18 2 Mercury Concentrations in Hair Samples of Community Children...................... 18 ii ABOUT THE AUTHORS Joana Rosario, M.D., MPH, a neurologist and epidemiologist, is Assistant Professor in the departments of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, and Neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. She has significant international health experience both as an investigator and as a consultant. From her multiple research projects in Latin America, she has acquired specific skills in the assessment of exposure to environmental toxins, including their effects in human health. Also, she has expertise in health education and health promotion techniques for non-Western populations. In the Brazilian Amazon, she has been evaluating the impact of mercury on humans and the aquatic food chain from informal gold-mining activities. Dr. Rosario is fluent in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese dialects. Steven Ault, MSc, REHS, has served since 1994 as Technical Director for Public Health on the Environmental Health Project. Currently he manages and provides technical assistance for a portfolio of USAID projects in Latin America, Central Europe, and Egypt. He is an environmental health scientist and entomologist (BSc with PhD studies, University of California at Davis; MSc University of Liverpool’s School of Tropical Medicine) and a Registered Environmental Health Specialist (Sanitarian). Additional Team Members (by chronological order of participation in this activity) John Austin, Ph.D., has been involved in water and sanitation sector development activities since 1953. From 1955 to 1957 he provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health in Vietnam for rural water supply and sanitation. He has served as a consultant to USAID, PAHO, WHO, World Bank, Government of Canada as well as to various federal government and state agencies within the United States. From 1981 to his retirement in 1993, he provided technical assistance to the USAID-sponsored Water and Sanitation for Health Project and was its project manager for about 10 years. Since his retirement, he has provided consulting services to a number of agencies. At the present time he serves as a Professor of Civil Engineering at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, and is on loan to the Office of Health and Nutrition, USAID, serving as an Environmental Engineering Advisor. Harold Case, faculty member and head of the Video Arts Program at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California, has produced videos in Mexico and the United States, and segments of major Hollywood films. He is bilingual in English and Spanish. Daniel Edwards is an institutional/organizational development and training specialist based in Seattle. He has worked in a variety of environmental health programs with EHP and its predecessor, the WASH Project over the past 15 years. He has extensive experience in institutional development project design, evaluation of institutional change projects, management training, and training technology programs. He is vice president and a founding partner of Training Resources Group, Inc. Recent assignments include program development for provincial cities water and wastewater in Egypt, sectoral reform project design for water and wastewater for El Salvador, and a long-term project to develop managers and trainers in Latin America for an international NGO. He is fluent in English and Spanish. iii Maria Patricia Edouard was the local coordinator of this activity; she resides in Managua. She is a computer programmer, who has also provided training in programming. She is fluent in Spanish and English. Alan Hurwitz, Ph.D., is an institutional/organizational development and training specialist based in Massachusetts. He has been a consultant for more than 20 years, working with major corporations and public organizations in the United States and 30 other countries. His work includes team development, strategic planning, long-term culture change, conflict management, developing collaborative systems, and a wide range of management training and consulting activities. Clients have included the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Secretariat, WHO, USAID missions in several countries, and others. He is the principal of Alan Hurwitz Associates. He is fluent in English and Spanish. Robert Mason, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Marine Biology in the University of Maryland Chesapeake Biological Laboratory campus. He conducted the hair analyses for mercury for this activity, and conducts research on the cycling and speciation of mercury between atmosphere and ocean. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The team would like to express its gratitude to the many individuals who agreed to be interviewed, and to those who helped the team achieve its mission. Jurij Homziak, former Mission Environment Officer and his staff at USAID/Managua were instrumental in getting us oriented to key players while current Environment Officer Gerald Bauer and Health Officer Margaret Harritt provided subsequent support and guidance during the course of the project. Brady Watson and Todd Miller, TNC, provided invaluable collaboration, advice,