Transcript Cambodia
Khley Cheng, Tom Murphy and David Ford Environmental Contamination in Cambodia 1 Cambodia - Populations around 15 millions - Area 181,035 Km2 - Water 2.5% 2 Some problems to destroy environment • • • • • • • Water quality and management issues Solid waste Air pollution Deforestation Landmine Pesticides Mining 3 Pollution 4 Pollution 5 Hand-held XRF – Thermo Fisher Loan -analysis in ~1 minute -no extraction or other preparation of sample -detects ppm concentrations of many metals -non destructive -no cross contamination or fouling of sensor 6 Climate change is producing weather that is -wetter -hotter -more unstable One of the countries most sensitive to climate change -85% is rural and dependent on simple agriculture 7 Cambodia Arsenic Poisoning First Obvious in 2006 8 9 Irrigating with 500 µg/L of arsenic 10 Traditional Medicines -Collaborate with Ministry of Health -Concern about lead, mercury and arsenic additives -documented by US-CDC in Chinese, Thai and Indian “medicines” up to 10% Hg -Warn people, suppress use, and if possible measure blood-Pb and urine-Hg in users of these products to document toxicity 11 Camcontrol Perkin-Elmer Direct Hg Analyser • -Hg in fish – have >200 samples collected by RUPP (Vittoria Elliott) for DNA bar coding • Support Camcontrol with XRF analysis on extremely contaminated products: skin whitening creams, mine tailings, etc 12 Mercury in Cambodia - Camcontrol 13 Hydropower Reservoirs -potential 30,000 MW for hydropower projects in Lower Mekong Basin -China has planned 15,550 MW on Mekong River by 2016. -oil pricing pushing development -arsenic geochemistry? -flood control required, irrigation, fisheries? 14 Mercury in Cambodia -need a network of agencies • Eventually fish advisories likely required • -how long will reservoir in tropics remain contaminated? 15 Mercury in Consumer Products • -33% of samples from beauty shops exceeded guidelines Murphy, T.P., S. Lim, S.P. Huong, K. Irvine, S. Bayen, B, Kelly and K. Wilson. 2012. Application of Handheld X-Ray Fluorescence Analyzers to Identify Mercury in Skin Whitening Creams in Cambodia. J Health Pollut. 3:21-31 16 50 km from mine fish had mean of 149 ppb of mercury (n=19) -6 predator fish >200 ppb Kratie – 1.5 kg/week Lumphat 1.0 kg/wk 17 18 Global Increase in Mercury now Driven by Asia 19 Jewelry -commonly contaminated with Pb Found clasps with >40% Pb -ingestion has killed child in USA -chronic toxicity more common Lead Amulets common in SE Asia 20 Aluminum extraction from bauxite in Mondul Kiri, Kratie and other provinces 21 Fish Anemia Study -Some fish have > iron than beef and could be used to treat anemia. -so far <30 species processed for [Fe]