Lernadzor Villager: What To Do, If Heavy Metals Are Detected in My Grandson’s Hair?

EcoLur

“Heavy metals have been detected in one of my grandsons’ hair. What to do and who to apply to?” Lernadzor villager (Syunik Region) Aida Ghukasyan is asking this shocking question: the analyses of the Center for Noosphere Ecological Studies have detected heavy metals in the hair of 12 children living in Lernadzor and Kajaran. The source of this environmental pollution can’t be doubted: Lernadzor is only 2-3 km far away from Kajaran. Kajaran itself is constructed on Kajaran copper and molybdenum mine, a mine, which is one of the world’s largest mines developed Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine, ZCMC. The open mine where ore is mines in an opencast manner by exploding areas is also located within the precincts of the town. The 36-kilometer-long tailing pipe stretches across the gorge, then Lernadzor above Kajaran, where ZCMC tails are dumped into Artsvanik tailing dump. The tailing pipe is rather old, and it requires capital repair. ZCMC increased production output up to 15 million tons in 2010 (the production output was not more than 7-8 million tons before the privatization in 2004), and the ZCMC intends to make this figure 18 million in 2011. The tailing pipe can’t just endure such load. In case of any breakdown, the content flows into the gorge, then river and then community land areas.

Not far from Lernadzor is the closed tailing dump belonging to ZCMC. Though the content of the tailing dumps had dried out, the content is toxic with heavy metals.

The residents grow agricultural products in these polluted land areas, where heavy metals get into human organisms together with contaminated products. “We want to meet people who can give certain answers to us and to explain us what is going on,” Aida Ghukasyan said.

EcoLur raised the alarm signal about the situation in Syunik Region before Health Ministry still in June 2011 and asked several questions, particularly: whether Health Ministry conducts its own examination of people's health living in hot spots and what kind of measures it takes to prevent the negative impact of mining industry on people's health. 

Health Ministry just promised to present data on prevalence of pathologies, but hasn’t presented so far.

September 05, 2011 at 14:39