Mercury exposure in female artisanal small-scale gold miners (ASGM) in Mongolia: An analysis of human biomonitoring (HBM) data from 2008.

Background: Many poor in developing countries have turned to artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in an attempt to improve their situation. However, the mercury used to extract gold from ore is discharged in vaporized form into the environment, where it poses a hazard for human health.

Methods: As part of an environmental epidemiological study in Mongolia-to evaluate the burden of environmental mercury contamination-urine, blood and hair samples were collected from residents of areas with or without mercury contamination.

The public health dimension of disasters--health outcome assessment of disasters.

A broad range of health problems are related to disasters. Insight into these health problems is needed for targeted disaster management. Disaster health outcome assessment can provide insight into the health effects of disasters.

Legal aspects and international assistance related to the deliberate use of chemicals to cause harm.

National and international law is an essential component of the array of measures serving to protect against the hostile release of biological or chemical agents, and to help to mitigate the consequences should such a release nevertheless take place. These includes the Geneva Protocol of 1925, the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, for which the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been established in 1997. In addition to the OPCW, the international community has made preparations through the United Nations (e.

The global burden of disease due to outdoor air pollution.

As part of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Burden of Disease Comparative Risk Assessment, the burden of disease attributable to urban ambient air pollution was estimated in terms of deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Air pollution is associated with a broad spectrum of acute and chronic health effects, the nature of which may vary with the pollutant constituents. Particulate air pollution is consistently and independently related to the most serious effects, including lung cancer and other cardiopulmonary mortality.