Do humans take good care of their offspring as animals do…! the Lavreotiki and Lavrion 'sagas', Hellenic Republic-Part 2: hazard and risk assessment and remediation.

A number of geochemical and epidemiological studies verified that the Lavrion urban and suburban area is highly contaminated and has affected to a variable degree the health of the inhabitants, presented in the first part of review on the Lavrion 'sagas'. In the second part of this review, emphasis is given to the challenge environmental scientists faced in communicating the scientific results to environmental managers and the public and state officials in order for them to understand the benefits of prioritising public health over wealth. Imminent remediation actions have been developed and proposed in order to secure a healthier life for the local population.

Do humans take good care of their offspring as animals do…! The Lavreotiki and Lavrion 'sagas', Hellenic Republic-Part 1: Historical outline and mapping of lead contamination.

The Lavreotiki-Lavrion area, situated in the south-eastern tip of mainland Hellas, has one of the longest mining, ore beneficiation and smelting legacies worldwide. With a history of over 5000 years of argentiferous Pb-Zn ore exploitation, Lavrion is a place that shaped human civilisation by being a major wealth producing centre of the ancient world but also represents one of the few significant industrial developments of the modern Hellenic Republic, since the second part of the 19th century. The long history of mining, ore beneficiation and smelting activities produced a vast amount of potentially toxic wastes.