1 / 22

Environmental Contamination in Cambodia

Khley Cheng, Tom Murphy and David Ford. Environmental Contamination in Cambodia. Cambodia. Populations around 15 millions Area 181,035 Km 2 Water 2.5%. Some problems to destroy environment. Water quality and management issues Solid waste Air pollution Deforestation Landmine

azize
Download Presentation

Environmental Contamination in Cambodia

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Khley Cheng, Tom Murphy and David Ford Environmental Contamination in Cambodia

  2. Cambodia • Populations around 15 millions • Area 181,035 Km2 • Water 2.5%

  3. Some problems to destroy environment • Water quality and management issues • Solid waste • Air pollution • Deforestation • Landmine • Pesticides • Mining

  4. Pollution

  5. Pollution

  6. Hand-held XRF – Thermo Fisher Loan -analysis in ~1 minute -no extraction or other preparation of sample -detects ppm concentrations of many metals -non destructive -no cross contamination or fouling of sensor

  7. Climate change is producing weather that is -wetter -hotter -more unstable One of the countries most sensitive to climate change -85% is rural and dependent on simple agriculture

  8. Cambodia Arsenic Poisoning First Obvious in 2006

  9. Irrigating with 500 µg/L of arsenic

  10. Traditional Medicines -Collaborate with Ministry of Health -Concern about lead, mercury and arsenic additives -documented by US-CDC in Chinese, Thai and Indian “medicines” up to 10% Hg -Warn people, suppress use, and if possible measure blood-Pb and urine-Hg in users of these products to document toxicity

  11. CamcontrolPerkin-Elmer Direct Hg Analyser • -Hg in fish – have >200 samples collected by RUPP (Vittoria Elliott) for DNA bar coding • Support Camcontrol with XRF analysis on extremely contaminated products: skin whitening creams, mine tailings, etc

  12. Mercury in Cambodia - Camcontrol

  13. Hydropower Reservoirs • potential 30,000 MW for hydropower projects in Lower Mekong Basin • -China has planned 15,550 MW on Mekong River by 2016. • -oil pricing pushing development • -arsenic geochemistry? • -flood control required, irrigation, fisheries?

  14. Mercury in Cambodia -need a network of agencies • Eventually fish advisories likely required • -how long will reservoir in tropics remain contaminated?

  15. Mercury in Consumer Products • -33% of samples from beauty shops exceeded guidelines Murphy, T.P., S. Lim, S.P. Huong, K. Irvine, S. Bayen, B, KellyandK. Wilson. 2012. Application of Handheld X-Ray Fluorescence Analyzers to Identify Mercury in Skin Whitening Creams in Cambodia. J Health Pollut. 3:21-31

  16. 50 km from mine fish had mean of 149 ppb of mercury (n=19) -6 predator fish >200 ppb Kratie – 1.5 kg/week Lumphat 1.0 kg/wk

  17. Global Increase in Mercury now Driven by Asia

  18. Jewelry -commonly contaminated with Pb Found clasps with >40% Pb -ingestion has killed child in USA -chronic toxicity more common Lead Amulets common in SE Asia

  19. Aluminum extraction from bauxite in MondulKiri, Kratieand other provinces

  20. Fish Anemia Study -Some fish have > iron than beef and could be used to treat anemia. -so far <30 species processed for [Fe]

More Related