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3 Environmental and Health Impacts Due to the Mining
Activities
Uranium mining and milling operations have significant environmental, social, and
monetary concerns, which have potential to affect quality and quantity of water
(surface and groundwater), soils, air and biota (IAEA 2004). Moreover, significant
health impacts have been found not only to the miners associated with this activity
but also to those who live in the surrounding communities (Bister et al. 2015; Ruedig
and Johnson 2015). Significant potential environmental risks are reported with
extreme natural and anthropogenic events, i.e. failures in waste management practices. The Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accidents are examples of
anthropogenic accidents (Arnold et al. 2015). Moreover, during the mining process,
geological structure of earth is getting disturbed (Beheshti 2011) and leading natural hazards. Therefore, this section analyses the prevailing data on environmental
and health impacts from peer-reviewed literature, government and agency reports
and various stakeholders to assess the extent of these impacts.
Plenty of the available reports infer that the populations living nearby uranium
mining and milling areas may be exposed to higher levels of uranium through the
local source of drinking water and locally grown vegetables and food items. For
example, a 200-fold mean airborne concentration of uranium has been detected
around 2 km area of a Canadian uranium refinery, whereas an elevated level of uranium (and thorium) has been measured around 8 miles from the active uranium
mines of Australia. A 75-fold higher uranium concentration has been found in the
vegetation near to the milling plants in New Mexico. Although a daily intake of
uranium in food and water varies from 1 to 5 μg U d
−1
in the uncontaminated areas,
the intake is usually above 13 μg U d
−1
nearer to uranium mining area. The Grant
Mineral Belt, New Mexico, was also faced with severe concerns due to seepage of
mining and tailing effluents into stream where two tailing ponds contributed ~2400
curies of uranium, radium and thorium to the groundwater through seepage.
Furthermore, Sethy et al. (2011) have also reported that 1.0 k Bq m
−3
of radiumcontaminated water was found in 43 out of 65 coal mines in Upper Silesian Coal
Basin.
Notably, the EPA has measured the most elevated concentrations of uranium in
the root vegetation like potatoes and onions and in the animal products (like meat
and milk) of the animals taking contaminated grass/plants/foods/vegetation. Earlier
studies on health impacts of uranium toxicity show that it may affect the bone
growth and have negative reproductive effects. A higher rate of childhood leukaemia,
respiratory and kidney disease has also been recorded in the areas proximal to uranium mine sites. Current evidence suggests that the uranium toxicity is primarily
due to the chemical damage to the kidney by tubular wall degeneration that can be
observed histologically. The damage to the endothelial cells in the glomerulus along
with the loss of cellular process and density reduction of the endothelial windows
can be observed by the ultrastructural analysis. It leads to a disruption of the tubular
solute reabsorption and decreases the filtration rate of the glomerulus, thus causing
R. R. Srivastava et al.
3 Environmental and Health Impacts Due to the Mining
Activities
Uranium mining and milling operations have significant environmental, social, and
monetary concerns, which have potential to affect quality and quantity of water
(surface and groundwater), soils, air and biota (IAEA 2004). Moreover, significant
health impacts have been found not only to the miners associated with this activity
but also to those who live in the surrounding communities (Bister et al. 2015; Ruedig
and Johnson 2015). Significant potential environmental risks are reported with
extreme natural and anthropogenic events, i.e. failures in waste management practices. The Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accidents are examples of
anthropogenic accidents (Arnold et al. 2015). Moreover, during the mining process,
geological structure of earth is getting disturbed (Beheshti 2011) and leading natural hazards. Therefore, this section analyses the prevailing data on environmental
and health impacts from peer-reviewed literature, government and agency reports
and various stakeholders to assess the extent of these impacts.
Plenty of the available reports infer that the populations living nearby uranium
mining and milling areas may be exposed to higher levels of uranium through the
local source of drinking water and locally grown vegetables and food items. For
example, a 200-fold mean airborne concentration of uranium has been detected
around 2 km area of a Canadian uranium refinery, whereas an elevated level of uranium (and thorium) has been measured around 8 miles from the active uranium
mines of Australia. A 75-fold higher uranium concentration has been found in the
vegetation near to the milling plants in New Mexico. Although a daily intake of
uranium in food and water varies from 1 to 5 μg U d
−1
in the uncontaminated areas,
the intake is usually above 13 μg U d
−1
nearer to uranium mining area. The Grant
Mineral Belt, New Mexico, was also faced with severe concerns due to seepage of
mining and tailing effluents into stream where two tailing ponds contributed ~2400
curies of uranium, radium and thorium to the groundwater through seepage.
Furthermore, Sethy et al. (2011) have also reported that 1.0 k Bq m
−3
of radiumcontaminated water was found in 43 out of 65 coal mines in Upper Silesian Coal
Basin.
Notably, the EPA has measured the most elevated concentrations of uranium in
the root vegetation like potatoes and onions and in the animal products (like meat
and milk) of the animals taking contaminated grass/plants/foods/vegetation. Earlier
studies on health impacts of uranium toxicity show that it may affect the bone
growth and have negative reproductive effects. A higher rate of childhood leukaemia,
respiratory and kidney disease has also been recorded in the areas proximal to uranium mine sites. Current evidence suggests that the uranium toxicity is primarily
due to the chemical damage to the kidney by tubular wall degeneration that can be
observed histologically. The damage to the endothelial cells in the glomerulus along
with the loss of cellular process and density reduction of the endothelial windows
can be observed by the ultrastructural analysis. It leads to a disruption of the tubular
solute reabsorption and decreases the filtration rate of the glomerulus, thus causing
R. R. Srivastava et al.