INDUSTRY LEAST CONCERNED IN INDIA - ASGM
India is the second-largest user of mercury in the world (170–190 tons a year) after the US (372 tonnes annually). According to the Canadian Global Emissions Interpretation Centre (CGEIC), which has published data on the spatial distribution of mercury emissions in air, India is one of the world’s mercury hotspots, with mercury being released into the air uniformly at a rate of 0.1–0.5 tons per year, with coastal areas having an even higher emission rate ranging between 0.5 to 2 tons/year. According to the CGEIC, anthropogenic emission of mercury is estimated to have increased in India by 27 per cent in the last decade. India hardly has any regulation worth speaking of. Slowly, but surely, mercury pollution is the crisis of the near-future. A draft notification was issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2000 for a phased elimination of mercury from consumer products, but it does not have any concrete plans to phase out the existing ones, which are causing widespread mercury pollution.
Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) produces up to 30% of annual gold output employing more than 10 million miners in over 65 countries. Mercury amalgamation is the method used for extracting gold from the ore and because of generally low technical awareness, unnecessary high quantities of mercury are used with almost all ending up in the environment. In the ore processing, two steps are responsible for the majority of the emissions: metallic mercury is released to water body during the amalgamation process and mercury vapors are released during the amalgam burning.
As covered by 2008 World’s worst Polluted Places report, ASGM still threatens today’s world’s environment and Public health. According to UNIDO reported in 2005, as much as 95 percent of all mercury used in ASGM is released into the environment, creating a danger on all fronts- economic, environmental and human health.
So, everyone out there reading this blog I want your valuable replies which would bring this ASGM to a big offset in the use of Mercury to improvise the health of the needy and to enhance the Environment.