In the global story of food safety, new concerns are casting a shadow over agricultural products harvested from mining areas.
These areas are known for their mineral richness, but there are disturbing speculations about the food grown around them, raising red flags about the safety of food for human consumption.
This report is based on interviews, published and unpublished research findings, and expert opinions from across the country to investigate such food hazards and more.
“I’m very worried. We don’t know exactly where the vegetables and produce on the market were harvested.”
There is no way we would buy agricultural products harvested from a mine site. Crops contain poison. That’s definitely true. Have you ever seen how brown the water is around these mining sites?
“As long as all these chemicals are released into the ground and into the water, crops will definitely be affected.”
Patience, a 40-year-old mother, raised concerns about the safety of food harvested from the mine site.
This dilemma requires more than just patience, so Luv News conducted a survey among Kumasi residents to find out whether they think the crops grown in the mining area are being poisoned or not, and if they are worried at all. I decided to investigate whether or not they finally eat the crops. I know they come from mining areas.
Mining, an important economic activity, is often closely linked to agricultural landscapes. However, the coexistence of these two industries has raised concerns about the safety of crops grown near mine sites.
At the heart of this concern is the potential contamination of soil, water, and air from heavy metals and toxic substances inherent in mining operations.
Agricultural complex ecosystems are susceptible to the widespread impacts of mining activities. Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury are ubiquitous at mining sites and have a harmful tendency to leach into the surrounding environment.
For staples
In 2006, the prevalence of illegal mining in the Tarkwa community in Ghana’s western region led environmental chemist Dr. David Kofi Esman of the University of Cape Coast to check the levels of arsenic, cadmium and mercury in cocoyam. Ta(Xanthosoma sagitifolium) and water cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta) within the mining community.
He and three others collected samples from three towns: Ehuanta, Nsta and Tamso. Both of these towns are mining areas.
Dr. Essman found that the levels of these metals were above acceptable standards.
“The concentration of sagitifolium from soil is 0.043 mg/g, which is actually higher than the WHO acceptable level for daily oral intake of cadmium in X. sagitifolium. Arsenic and mercury in X. sagitifolium obtained levels were 0.146 and 0.003 mg/g, respectively. These values are higher than the WHO permissible limits.
“The ingestion of X. sagitifolium and C. esculenta by humans can pose serious health risks. The levels of arsenic, cadmium and mercury in the soil of the study area are very high and therefore the ingestion of X. sagitifolium and C. We found that they were taken up by tuber crops such as esculenta,” he pointed out.
In 2019, Abubakar Mohammed from the University of Cape Coast also conducted a study to assess heavy metal concentrations in cassava from two revegetated sites in the AngloGold mining area of Obuasi.
However, he concluded that the levels of heavy metals detected were below drug-toxic levels.
What about vegetables?
In 2006, Dr. Esman’s chemistry master’s student, Ms. Elizabeth Ahaj, also conducted research to determine the levels of mercury, zinc, and cadmium in the leaves of some crops from the mining communities of Tarkwa, Prestea, Bankim, and Agona. I started. It is located in the southwestern part of Ghana.
These leaves were those of Xanthosoma sagittifolium (kotombre), Manihot esculenta (cassava leaf), and Colocasia esculenta (taro).
For comparison, Elizabeth also took vacations from non-mining towns.
Her lab results showed that her zinc and cadmium were within normal limits, except for mercury, which was above unacceptable levels. However, levels of these metals were significantly higher in mine site leaves than in their non-mine counterparts.
“The study revealed that concentrations of mercury, zinc and cadmium in samples from mining communities were higher than in samples from non-mining communities, with significant differences in mean values at a 95% confidence level. When the results obtained were compared with the WHO and EPA permissible values, the concentrations of zinc and cadmium in the samples were within the range of reference concentrations found in plant leaves and cons. However, the mercury levels in the samples were within the phytotoxic concentration range,” she said.
In fact, 2006 is such a long year that in 2022 the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Department of Materials Science and Technology will also conduct a study to assess the potential risks of heavy metals in some selected vegetables from artisanal gold mining. was carried out. The site is located in Mose-Aso, Wassa-Amenfi West District, Ghana.
The target vegetables were tomatoes, green onions, and lettuce, which were sampled from the farm. .
This study revealed all the heavy metals investigated. “Arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury in selected food crops exceeded standard limits.”
What is the risk of disease?
But Dr. Kofi Esman didn’t stop there. In a report published in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment in 2007, he wanted to examine the cancer and non-cancer health risks of eating cassava grown in some mining communities in Ghana. I was there.
He found that with continued consumption of these foods, approximately 10 and 8 out of 100 resident adults were more likely to suffer from cancer-related cases.
“For Prestea, it is 0.010 and 0.12, which also means that based on RME and CTE parameters, approximately 1 in 100 people and 10 in 100 resident adults are likely to have a cancer-related disease. The obtained research results indicate an acceptable cancer risk range of 1 × 10-6 to 1 × 10-4, i.e., 1 in 1 million or 1 in 100,000 cancer patients, respectively. “It was found that this was exceeded,” the report said.
Moseaso’s research on four vegetables: Cancer risk assessment The results revealed that, with the exception of lead, the rest can have negative effects on consumer health.
“All heavy metals considered were above the USEPA safe formula of 1.0 × 10.-6 ~1.0×10−4 For both adults and children. “Based on these results, we can recommend that dietary intake of vegetables grown in the study area is unsafe and may pose a serious threat to health and the environment,” the scientists said.
remove heavy metals by cooking
Due to the presence of these heavy metal contaminants in Ghana’s popular staple foods, in 2021 Dr. Hayford Ofori and friends at the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research’s Institute of Food Research, investigated home processing methods such as boiling and frying. We wanted to investigate the effectiveness of Roasting that significantly reduces the levels of heavy metal contaminants in food crops grown in and around his two major mining centers in Ghana. The crops are cassava, plantain, yam, and cocoyam.
The heavy metal contaminants analyzed were arsenic, cadmium, lead, manganese, and mercury.
Untreated samples from Akwatia contained higher levels of contaminants than samples from Obuasi. The levels of magnesium, lead and arsenic recorded in all untreated samples were high compared to WHO food permissible limits. Treated samples showed a trend of decreasing levels. The lowest arsenic and lead content was recorded after frying or boiling.
The results, published in the journal Toxicology Reports, showed that roasting reduced heavy metal contamination the least in four food crops.
Cadmium levels in both treated and untreated samples were within WHO safe specifications. This excludes lead in raw cassava, boiled cassava, and raw plantains, and mercury in raw and roasted yams.
Scientists have found that all metals in all food crops have a hazard index of less than 1, meaning they pose no risk to consumers.
Therefore, this study revealed that the levels of heavy metal contaminants in cassava, cocoyam, plantain, and yam can be significantly reduced through common household processing methods.
“Some of the heavy metals detected were above WHO standards. However, the health risk assessment showed that they did not pose a health risk as the HI was less than 1. Processing methods such as boiling, frying, and roasting can reduce the levels of heavy metals in these metals,” Dr. Ofori said.
It is now well established that heavy metals can be removed from staple foods by boiling and other food processing methods.
Nevertheless, considering the risk of long-term negative effects, it is suggested that policies should be developed to guide the planting, harvesting and consumption of food crops from mining areas to protect the health of the population. Masu.
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