“Evaluación del riesgo Sanitario Ambiental por exposición de arsénico y mercurio presente en los sedimentos del distrito minero Portovelo – Zaruma.”

Since colonial times, the main gold mining activities are in the Southern region of Ecuador. Zaruma - Portovelo zone is the main mining district of the country. It has approximately 200 mining concessions and 80 gold processing plants. Small-scale mining and artisanal mining activities in the area led to high concentrations of several heavy metals, among which the most representative are arsenic and mercury. Mercury is used in amalgamation processes for gold recovery. Arsenic is produced from mineral sulphides exposed to weathering processes during excavation. The objective of this article is to evaluate the effects on health in terms of carcinogenic risk and toxic risk for adults, children and mining workers of the Zaruma Portovelo Mining District, through a probabilistic and deterministic analysis. The sampling points are located near the banks of the Caleras, Pindo and Amarillo rivers. This work thesis makes a temporal and spatial analysis of the mercury and arsenic concentration data in sediments during the years 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2017. The active routes of exposure are: inhalation, dermal contact and ingestion. For the calculation of the risk the receptor are considered located at the same place of the contamination. The results show that the total risk, calculated as the sum of the individual risks by exposure and for each pollutant, for both toxic and carcinogenic risk, exceeds the established limits RC = 1x 10 - 6 and HQ = 1, respectively.

• मुख्य लेखक: Chela Tenelema, Danny Andrés (author)
• अन्य लेखक: Cóndor Simbaña, Cristina Gabriela (author)
• स्वरूप: bachelorThesis
• भाषा: spa
• प्रकाशित: 2017
• विषय: mercurio; arsénico
• ऑनलाइन पहुंच: http://dspace.unach.edu.ec/handle/51000/3776