LAW 802
TECHNOLOGICAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
SCIENTIFIC AND
ISSUES FOR
LAWYERS
RESERCH PAPER
TOPIC: " THE IMPA-CT OF ASHANTI GOLDFIELDS COMPANY LIMITED ON THE
ENVIRONMENT OF OBUASI".
(A) General organization of the Reserch paper;
(i) Table of contents
(ii) 1.0- Introduction
1.1- Statement of the problem
1.2- Purpose of the study
1.3- Scope and Limitations of the study
1.4- Reserch Methodology
1.5- Definition of terms
1.6- Organization of the study
(b)
2.0- EXPERIMENTAL SECTION
2.1- Literature Review
2.2- The case for Ashanti Goldfields company Limited
2.3- The case against Ashanti Goldfields company Limited.
2.4- The position of case laws.
(c)
3.0- Results and discussion
3.1- Findings of the Research
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
May it please your honor and members of
the jury, I appear before
You as witness for the Defendant Company to express on opinion on the issues
before you. The
defendant company- Ashanti Goldfields company Limited is a rapidly growing
African gold
mining and exploration group with four producing gold mines and two gold
projects in
development. The largest of these , the Obuasi mine in Ghana, is one of the
oldest, largest and
richest gold mines in the world. The defendant company has an active
exploration program
which is focused on some of the more prospective gold mineralisation belts
within Africa with
the purpose of expanding group gold resources beyond the current 32 million
ounce of
measured and indicated resources. (1) The company was established in London
to finance
development of the Obuasi deposit in 1897.It started underground mining in
1907. Your honor
and members of the jury, mining of gold entails extraction and processing
massive quantities of
soil and rock to get small quantities of gold. The remains of mountains of
solid wastes that
piled up near the mine sites after gold is extracted from its ore can pollute
the air, surface
water and underground water if deligent care is not exercised. Gold-bearing
rock tends to
contain large quantities of sulfur, which forms sulfuric acid when exposed to
air and water. In
addition, it can kill aquatic life, the acid puts highly toxic metals such
as cadmium and
copper into solution which is harmful to the health of human-beings. The
Obuasi deposites are
located along a zone of intense shearing and faulting within precambrian
greenstones. The
mineralisation comprises two main types; quart viens that high-grade free
gold and the main
sulfide ore.
1.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
(a) To asertain whether the defendant company-Ashanti Goldfields is
committed to safeguarding the environment, the health and safety of workers
and the well being
of the communities in which it operates mining activities.
(b) To ascertain whether the measures adopted by the defendant
company to safeguard the
environment measured up to national and international standards;
(c) To determine whether there is any risk assessment and risk
management.
1.3
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The study is hypothetical case under the assumption that United
states EPA
stardards applied and limited to Obuasi township of Ghana. This is because of
lack of time,
resources and financial constraints.
1.4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methodology adopted mainly centered on secondary
materials, and
periodicals.
1.5
DEFINITION OF TERMS
(i) SURFACE MINING:- Mechanized equipment strips away the
over-burden of soil
and rock and other strata and then extracting mineral deposit found fairly
close to the earth
surface.
(ii) SPOIL:- Is the discarded over-burden of soil and rock waste.
(iii) OPEN-PIT MINING:- Machines digholes and remove ores such as
gold.
(iv) ORE:- Is a metal-yielding material that can be economically
extracted at a given
time. To be profitable gold in gold ore must be concentrated to 1,000 times
its crustal average.
(v) DREDGING:- Is another form of surface mining in which chain
buckets and draglines scrape up under-water mineral deposit.
(vi) STRIP MINING:- Is surface mining in which bulldozers, power
shovels, or striping
wheels remove the overburden in strips.
(v) RESERVES:- Are identified resource that can be extracted
economically at current
prices using current mining technology.
(vi) EMISSIONS:- To release a waste substance in to the atmosphere
or the
environment.
(vii) FLU GASES:- Gases that are harmful and cause disease.
RISK:- Is the possibility of suffering harm from a hazard that cause injury,
disease,
economic loss, or environmental damage. It is expressed in terms of
probability.
PROBABILITY:- Is a mathematical statement about how likely it is that some
event or effect
will occur.
RISK ASSESSMENT:- Involves using data, hypotheses, and models to estimate the
probability
of harm to human health, to society, or to the environment that may result
from exposure to
specific harzards.
HARZARDS:- Are, the harmful effects that injuryed a person or environment.
CULTURAL HAZARDS:-Unsafe working conditions, smoking, poor diet, drugs,
drinking,
driving, criminal assault,unsafe sex, and poverty.
CHEMICAL HAZARDS:-Harmful chemicals in the air, water and food.
PHYSICAL HAZARDS:-Such as noise, fire, tornadoes, hurricanes, earth quakes,
volcanic
eruptions, floods and ionizing radiation.
BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS: From pathogens (bacteria, viruses, and parasites), pollen
and other
allergens, and animals such as bees and poisonous snakes.
TOXICOLOGY: Is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on health.
TOXICITY: Is a measure of how harmful a substance is .
RESPONSE: Is the amount of the resulting type and amount of damage to health.
DOSE: Is the amount of a potentially harmful substance that a person has
ingested, inhaled,
or absorbed through the skin.
ACUTE EXPOSURE: Involves a single dose
CHRONIC EXPOSURE: Occurs over most or all of an entire lifetime.
SUB-CHRONIC EXPOSURE: Involves repeated exposures for some fraction of a
lifetime.
ACUTE EFFECT: Is an immediate or rapid harmful reaction to an exposure; it
can range from
dizziness or a rash to death.
CHRONIC EFFECT: Is a permanent or long lasting consequence (kidney or liver
damage, for
example) of exposure to a harmful substance.
BIOACCUMULATION: Is an increase in the concentration of a chemical in
specific organs or
tissues at a level higher than would normally be expected.
BIOMAGNIFICATION: Is the levels of some toxins in the environment can also be
magnified
as they pass through food chains and webs.
POISON: is a chemical that has an LD50 of 50 milligrams or less per kilogram
of body
weight.
AN LD50: Is the median lethal dose, or the amount of a chemical received in
one dose that kills
exactly 50% of the animals ( usually rats and mice) in a test population
(usually 60-200
animals) within a14-days period.
CASE REPORTS:- Is usually made by physicans to determine the level at which a
substance
poses a health threat.
LABORATORY I NVESTIGATIONS:(Usually on test animals) to determine toxicity, residence time, what parts
of the body are
a fected, and how the harm takes place.
EPIDEMIOLOGY:- Method to determine studies of populations of humans exposed
to certain
chemicals or diseases.
MULTAGENS:- Are agents, such as chemicals and radiation, that cause random
mutations, or
changes in the DNA molecules found in cells.
TERATOGENS: Are chemicals, radiation, or viruses that cause birth defects
while the human
embryo is growing and developing during pregrancy especially during the first
3 months.
Chemicals know to cause birth defects in laboratory animals include PCBs,
thalidomide,
steroid hormones, and heavy metals such arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury.
CARCINOGENS:- Are chemicals radiation, or viruses that cause or promote the
growth of a
malignant (cancerous) tumor, in which certain cells multiply uncontrollably.
METASTASIS: - When malignant cells break off from tumors and travel in body
fluids to
other parts of the body. There, they start new tumors, making treatment much
more difficult.
HAZARDOUS CHEMICAL:- Chemical that can cause harm because it is flammable or
explosive, or that can irritate or damage the skin or lungs (such as strong
acidic or alkaline
substances) or cause allergic reactions if the immume system (allergens).
HAZARDOUS WASTE:- Any liquid, or containerized gas that can catch fire
easily, is
corrosive to skin tissue or metals, is unstable and can explode or release
toxic fumes, or has harmful concentrations of one or more toxic materials
that can leach out.
LEACHING:- Is a process in which various chemicals in upper layers of soil
are dissolved and
carried to lower layers and in some cases, to ground-water.
PATHOGEN:- Organism that produces disease.
POLLUTION:- An undersivable change in the physical, chemical or biological
characteristics
of air, water, soil, or food that can adversely affect the health, survival,
or activities of humans
or other living organisms.
POLLUTANT:- Aparticular chemical or form of energy that can adversely affect
the health,
survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms.
POLLUTION CLEANUP:- Device or process that removes or reduces that level of a
pollutant
after it has been produced or has entered the environment. Examples are
automobile emissioncontrol devices and sewerage treatment plants.
(vi) ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
The research study is divided into three (3) sections as follows:1.0- INTRODUCTION
2.0- EXPERIMENTAL SECTION and deals with literature review; Ashanti
Goldfields
Company limited (Good news and the bad news). The thrust of the chapter deals
with the
measures adopted to control the harmful effect of the activities of the
Company on the
environment of Obuasi.
3.0- RESULT AND DISCUSSION.
The chapter focuses on risk Assessment and risk management and
treats case laws.
2.0 EXPERIMENTAL (RESEARCH) DATA.
2.1 RESEARCH DATA
Your honor and members of the jury, the issues before you need a
thorough scientific and
technological understanding and analysis in order to determine the legal
ramifications and
arrive at a logical and reasonable decision.I appear before you to undertake
that task. The
scientific issues involved in this case are as follows;
(i) To determine whether the emissions of the flu gases in the PTP stack into
the environment
(atmosphere) pollute the air, harmful and pose imminent danger to human
health.
(ii) To determine whether the discharge of effluent into the Kwabrafo River
pollutes the river
and poses as imminent on dangerment to human health and aquatic life;
(iii) Whether the measures adopted by the company to safeguard the
environment meet
national and international standards (EPA stardards);
(iv) Whether the exposure resulting from Ashanti Goldfields discharge may be
said to present
a legally cognizable risk to health.
2.2 INGESTION OF FIBERS AS A DANGER TO HEALTH
Your honor and members of the jury, although epidemiological studies,
which associate
flu gases fibers with harm to health are base upon inhalation of these fibers
by humans. Thus
medical opinion agrees that fibers entering the respivatory tract can
interact with body tissues
and produce disease. The exposure to air pollutants may breakdown the natural
defense system
of humans causing respiratory diseases. Example are as follows:
(a) Lung cancer
(b) asthma (typically an allergic reaction causing sudden episodes of
muscle spasms in the
bronchical walls, resulting in acute shortness of breath);
(c) Chronic bronchitis (persistent inflammation and damage to the cells
living the bronchi and
bronchiotes, causing muscus buildup, painful coughing and shortness of
breath). The people
who are especially vulnerable to air pollution are elderly people, infants,
pregnant women, and
people with heart disease, asthma, or other respiratory disease.
2.3
EFFECTS OF CARBON MONOXIDE (CO)
It is a colorless, odorless, poisonous gas in the
throposphere and comes from natural
sources. It is mostly produced by reaction in the upper troposphere between
methane (emitted
mostly of organic matter in swamps, boys, and marshes) and oxygen. Because CO
is diluted
by the turbulent air flows in the troposphere, it does not build up to
harmful levels. However,
CO is added to the atmosphere by the incomplete burning of carbon-containing
chemicals
(primarily fossil fuels).
Cigarette smoking is responsible for the largest human exposure to CO,
but this gas also
released by motor vehicles, kerosene heaters, wood stoves, fireplaces and
faulty heating
systems. CO reacts with hemoglobin in red blood cells and thus reduces the
ability of blood to
cerry oxygen. This impairs perception and thinking, slow reflexes, and causes
headaches,
drowsiness, dizziness, and nausea. CO can aslo trigger heart attacks and
angina attacks in
people with heart disease. It can also damage the development of fetuses and
young children
and aggravate chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and anaemia, exposure to high
levels of CO
causes collapse, coma, irreversible damage to brain cells, and even death
2.4
MATTEREFFECTS OF INHALING SUSPENDED PARTICULATE
Inhaling particulate matter aggravates bronchitis and asthma,
and long-term
exposure can contribute to development of chronic respiratory disease and
cancer. Invisible
particles such as fine particles with diameters less than 10 microns and
ultrative less than 2.5
microns are hazardous, they are emissed by incinerators, motors vehicles,
radial tires, wind
erosion wood-burning fireplaces, and power and industrial plants. They can
also bring with
them droplets or other particles of toxic or cancer causing pollutants that
become attached to
their surfaces. Once they are lodged deep within the lungs, evidence suggests
that these fine and
ultrative particles can cause chronic irritation that can trigger asthma
attacks, aggravate other
lung diseases, cancer, and interfer with the blood's ability to take in
oxygen and release CO2.
This strains the heart, increasing the of death cause by heart disease.8
However, to date there is
no know threshold level below which the harmful effects of fine particles
disappear.
2.5
EFFECTS OF SULFUR DIOXIDE ON HUMANS.
Sulfur dioxide causes some contraction of the airways in
healthy people and
Severe restriction in people with asthma. Chronic exposure may cause a
condition similar to
Bronchitis. Sulfer dioxide suspended particles react to form more hazardous
acid sulfate
Particles, which are inhaled more deeply into the lungs than SO2 and remain
there for long
periods. Nitrogen oxide (especially NO2) can irritate the lungs, aggravate
asthma chronic
Brochittes and emphysema, and increase susceptibility to respiratory
infections such as the flue
and common colds (especially in young children and elderly people).
Recent evidence from test animals indicates that
nitrogen dioxide exposure may
also encourage the spread of some cancers especially malignant melanoma
throughout the
Body. Research indicates that any volatile organic compounds (such as
benzene and
Formaldehyde) and toxic particulate (such as lead, cadmium, PCBs and dioxins)
can cause
Mutations, reproductive problems, or cancer.