Khley Cheng, Tom Murphy and David Ford
Environmental Contamination in
Cambodia
1
Cambodia
- Populations around
15 millions
- Area 181,035 Km2
- Water 2.5%
2
Some problems to destroy environment
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Water quality and management issues
Solid waste
Air pollution
Deforestation
Landmine
Pesticides
Mining
3
Pollution
4
Pollution
5
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
6
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
7
Cambodia Arsenic
Poisoning First
Obvious in 2006
8
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
Camcontrol
Perkin-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, Kelly and K. 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
18
Global Increase in Mercury now Driven
by Asia
19
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
20
Aluminum extraction from bauxite in Mondul Kiri, Kratie and other provinces
21
Fish Anemia Study
-Some fish have > iron than beef and could be used to
treat anemia.
-so far <30 species processed for [Fe]