Neurological Status Disturbances Caused by Mercury Exposures from Artisanal Gold Mining Area in West Aceh, Aceh Province

摘要

Artisanal gold mining activities in developing countries are still in concern with environmental and health issues regarding the impact which results from the activities. Amalgamation technique using mercury was commonly applied in extracting gold from the ore. During the process, mercury releases into the environment in its metallic form and mercury vapor. Mercury releases to environment can harm population who work or live near mining area. Mercury is a highly toxic metal and it can penetrate nervous systems as the main target organ. Acute and chronic neurological disturbances can also be experienced by the communities. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between occupation in the mining process, length of time of mercury exposure and neurological status disturbances in communities near artisanal gold mining area in West Aceh, and is known now as Aceh Jaya district, Aceh Province, Indonesia. A cross sectional design was conducted with 78 respondents who lived in villages namely, Paya Seumantok, Panggong, and Curek. Samples were collected by random sampling and respondents were interviewed and given general physical examination. Data were analyzed by Chi-Square test at a = 0.05. The results of this study showed that occupation in mining process has relationship with neurological status disturbances (p=0.004) whereas length of time of mercury exposure showed no relationship to neurological status disturbances (p=0.650). Respondents have experienced neurological disturbances such as headache (48.7%), insomnia (37.2%), tremor (10.3%), memory loss and mood changes (9.0%), hearing impairment and somatosensory disturbances (3.8%). It can be concluded that efforts for monitoring and evaluation on artisanal gold mining in the areas have to be made by local government and stakeholders to prevent widespread of epidemy on mercury disasters. It is also needed to follow up the neurological status disturbances of the respondents clinically through intensive examination.