title: Measuring total mercury due to small-scale gold mining activities to determine community vulnerability in Cihonje, Central Java, Indonesia.
abstract: This research is comparative study of gold mining and non-gold mining areas, using four community vulnerability indicators. Vulnerability indicators are exposure degree, contamination rate, chronic, and acute toxicity. Each indicator used different samples, such as wastewater from gold mining process, river water from Tajum river, human hair samples, and health questionnaire. This research used cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry to determine total mercury concentration. The result showed that concentration of total mercury was 2,420 times than the maximum content of mercury permitted in wastewater based on the Indonesian regulation. Moreover, the mercury concentration in river water reached 685 ng/l, exceeding the quality threshold standards of the World Health Organization (WHO). The mercury concentration in hair samples obtained from the people living in the research location was considered to identify the health quality level of the people or as a chronic toxicity indicator. The highest mercury concentration--i.e. 17 ng/mg, was found in the gold mining respondents. Therefore, based on the total mercury concentration in the four indicators, the community in the gold mining area were more vulnerable to mercury than communities in non-gold mining areas. It was concluded that the community in gold mining area was more vulnerable to mercury contamination than the community in non-gold mining area.
authors.affiliation: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi, Aichi 441-8580, Japan E-mail: m139502@edu.tut.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Mega M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Sari
authors.affiliation: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi, Aichi 441-8580, Japan E-mail: m139502@edu.tut.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Takanobu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering, Toyota National College of Technology, Toyota, Aichi 471-8525, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi, Aichi 441-8580, Japan E-mail: m139502@edu.tut.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Kuriko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yokota
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005260:Female; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000032:analysis; D006046:Gold; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia; D008297:Male; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D008906:Mining; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D006046:Gold; D008628:Mercury; D062065:Wastewater