Small-scale gold mining in the developing world is the largest source of man-made atmospheric mercury contamination, which can have devastating consequences for those impacted by the contamination. Exposed children can experience IQ losses, delayed speech and other neurodevelopmental deficits. Adults suffer damage to the cerebellum, visual cortex and motor strip. Mercury contamination from these mining activities impacts millions of people globally. Dr. Kiefer’s laboratory at Mercer is one of very few in the world dedicated to developing solutions to this global health crisis. Teams of students led by Dr. Kiefer have developed analytical techniques using portable atomic absorption spectrometers and GPS units to map cities and identify the locations of excessive mercury pollution in the atmosphere. With guidance from the EPA and Argonne, Dr. Kiefer and his colleagues and students are developing programs to remediate the mercury contamination as well as systems for capturing the mercury before it is released
http://news.mercer.edu/articles/2017/kiefer-vo-appointed-distinguished-university-professors.cfm#.WPtPKfnyu5g
No comments:
Post a Comment