In 1998, the Aznalcóllar mine tailings dyke in southwestern Spain broke, flooding the Agrio-Guadiamar river system with acid tailings up to the borders of one of the largest breeding colonies of white storks in the western Palearctic, Dehesa de Abajo. Over the following years, a high proportion of nestlings developed leg defects not seen before the spill, prompting this study. Nestlings with de...

The Summitville Mine was a high-elevation (3500 m) gold mine in southwestern Colorado. The mine was abandoned in 1992, leaving approximately 200 ha of disturbance comprised partially of an open pit, a cyanide heap leach pad, and two large waste rock piles. Reclamation of these mine facilities is challenging due to extreme climatic conditions in conjunction with high acid-production potential an...

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent of cadmium (Cd) contamination in agricultural soil and its potential risk for people. Soils, rice, and vegetables from Chenzhou City, Southern China were sampled and analyzed. In the surface soils, the 95% confidence interval for the mean concentration of Cd varied between 2.72 and 4.83 mg/kg (P < 0.05) in the survey, with a geometric mean conc...

The mortality from 1946 to 1975 of over 900 North Italian chrysotile asbestos workers first employed between 1930 and 1965 has been studied. Nine deaths were certified as attributable to asbestosis, and eleven to lung cancer. One death was attributed to mesothelioma of pleura but this diagnosis was not supported by histological examination. Comparison with the national figures for all Italy did...

The current s t a t e of the a r t of f i r e and smoke detect ion technology i s reviewed from the standpoint of s u i t a b i l i t y f o r use i n underground metal and nonmetal mines. Detection modes, f i r e signatures, and environmental considerat ions a r e included. Preliminary r e s u l t s of longterm, in-mine t e s t s a r e presented.

We report the closed and annotated genome sequence of Sulfuriferula sp. strain AH1. Strain AH1 has a 2,877,007-bp chromosome that includes a partial Sox system for inorganic sulfur oxidation and a complete nitrogen fixation pathway. It also has a single 39,138-bp plasmid with genes for arsenic and mercury resistance.

Itai-itai disease was first noticed in the Junzu River basin region in Toyama prefecture in central Japan around the 1930s. However, it was not identified as a cadmium poisoning disease until the 1960s. A local physician, with cooperation from outside experts, confirmed that the disease was caused by pollution from the Kamioka mine (owned by the Mitsui Mining & Smelting Company Ltd) located in ...

The Bazhenovskoye chrysotile asbestos deposit has been exploited for 115 years. All the technological operations in the quarry are accompanied by the formation of high-dispersion asbestos-containing aerosols. The dust concentrations at the miner's working places for the last 30 years (1970-2000) were at or below the Russian MACs(m.s.) level (4.0 mg/m3). The seasonal precipitation amount in the ...

BACKGROUND Bothremydidae is a clade of extinct pleurodiran turtles known from the Cretaceous to Paleogene of Africa, Europe, India, Madagascar, and North and South America. The group is most diverse during the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene of Africa. Little is known, however, about the early evolution of the group. METHODS We here figure and describe a fossil turtle from early Late Cretaceous ...

BACKGROUND The present work aimed at to describe hearing threshold based on audiometry data of the mine workers based on their age, work station and years of working of an open cast chromite mine in Odisha, India at high fence. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study of hearing threshold of the subjects of the chromite mine was carried out. Audiometric data of 500 subjects were taken fr...