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Invisible poison - Airborne mercury from gold mining is contaminating African food crops, study warns...
20 Oct, 2025 08:41 242 min read
A new study reveals that mercury pollution from artisanal gold mining contaminates food crops directly from the air, not through the soil as previously thought. Researchers found that plants near a Nigerian mining site absorbed mercury through their leaves during photosynthesis, leading to significantly higher concentrations in edible parts. This poses a severe, unmonitored risk to food security and human health in vulnerable communities dependent on local agriculture. The findings call for urgent policy changes to address this airborne contamination pathway, which is overlooked by current environmental monitoring efforts.... More