Harland L. Goldstein

Linking geological and health sciences to assess childhood lead poisoning from artisanal gold mining in Nigeria.

Background: In 2010, Médecins Sans Frontières discovered a lead poisoning outbreak linked to artisanal gold processing in northwestern Nigeria. The outbreak has killed approximately 400 young children and affected thousands more. Objectives: Our aim was to undertake an interdisciplinary geological- and health-science assessment to clarify lead sources and exposure pathways, identify additional toxicants of concern and populations at risk, and examine potential for similar lead poisoning globally. Methods: We applied diverse analytical methods to ore samples, soil and sweep samples from villages and family compounds, and plant foodstuff samples. Results: Natural weathering of lead-rich gold ores before mining formed abundant, highly gastric-bioaccessible lead carbonates. The same fingerprint of lead minerals found in all sample types confirms that ore processing caused extreme contamination, with up to 185,000 ppm lead in soils/sweep samples and up to 145 ppm lead in plant foodstuffs. Incidental ingestion of soils via hand-to-mouth transmission and of dusts cleared from the respiratory tract is the dominant exposure pathway. Consumption of water and foodstuffs contaminated by the processing is likely lesser, but these are still significant exposure pathways. Although young children suffered the most immediate and severe consequences, results indicate that older children, adult workers, pregnant women, and breastfed infants are also at risk for lead poisoning. Mercury, arsenic, manganese, antimony, and crystalline silica exposures pose additional health threats. Conclusions: Results inform ongoing efforts in Nigeria to assess lead contamination and poisoning, treat victims, mitigate exposures, and remediate contamination. Ore deposit geology, pre-mining weathering, and burgeoning artisanal mining may combine to cause similar lead poisoning disasters elsewhere globally.

Late Quaternary eolian and alluvial response to paleoclimate, Canyonlands, southeastern Utah

began at ca. 6 ka and ended by ca. 3‐2 ka, followed by a shift to drier modern conditions; localized mobilization of dune sand has persisted to the present. These interpretations are similar to those of studies at the Chaco dune fi eld, New Mexico, and the Tusayan dune fi eld, Arizona, and are consistent with paleoclimate interpretations of pollen and packrat middens in the region. A period of rapid deposition and infi ltration of eolian dust derived from distant igneous source terranes occurred between ca. 12 and 8 ka. Before ca. 17 ka, and apparently back to at least 45 ka, paleosols contain little or no such infi ltrated dust. After ca. 8 ka, either the supply of dust was reduced or the more arid climate inhibited translocation of dust into the soils.

Compositional trends in aeolian dust along a transect across the southwestern United States

[1] Aeolian dust strongly influences ecology and landscape geochemistry over large areas that span several desert ecosystems of the southwestern United States. This study evaluates spatial and temporal variations and trends of the physical and chemical properties of dust in the southwestern United States by examining dust deposited in natural depressions on high isolated surfaces along a transect from the Mojave Desert to the central Colorado Plateau. Aeolian dust is recognized in these depressions on the basis of textural, chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical characteristics and comparisons of those characteristics to the underlying bedrock units. Spatial and temporal trends suggest that although local dust sources are important to the accumulated material in these depressions, Mojave Desert dust sources may also contribute. Depth trends in the depressions suggest that Mojave sources may have contributed more dust to the Colorado Plateau recently than in the past. These interpretations point to the important roles of far-traveled aeolian dust for landscape geochemistry and imply future changes to soil geochemistry under changing conditions in far-distant dust source areas.

Biological effects of desert dust in respiratory epithelial cells and a murine model

Abstract As a result of the challenge of recent dust storms to public health, we tested the postulate that desert dust collected in the southwestern United States imparts a biological effect in respiratory epithelial cells and an animal model. Two samples of surface sediment were collected from separate dust sources in northeastern Arizona. Analysis of the PM20 fraction demonstrated that the majority of both dust samples were quartz and clay minerals (total SiO2 of 52 and 57%). Using respiratory epithelial and monocytic cell lines, the two desert dusts increased oxidant generation, measured by Amplex Red fluorescence, along with carbon black (a control particle), silica, and NIST 1649 (an ambient air pollution particle). Cell oxidant generation was greatest following exposures to silica and the desert dusts. Similarly, changes in RNA for superoxide dismutase-1, heme oxygenase-1, and cyclooxygenase-2 were also greatest after silica and the desert dusts supporting an oxidative stress after cell exposure. Silica, desert dusts, and the ambient air pollution particle NIST 1649 demonstrated a capacity to activate the p38 and ERK1/2 pathways and release pro-inflammatory mediators. Mice, instilled with the same particles, showed the greatest lavage concentrations of pro-inflammatory mediators, neutrophils, and lung injury following silica and desert dusts. We conclude that, comparable to other particles, desert dusts have a capacity to (1) influence oxidative stress and release of pro-inflammatory mediators in respiratory epithelial cells and (2) provoke an inflammatory injury in the lower respiratory tract of an animal model. The biological effects of desert dusts approximated those of silica.

Atmospheric mineral dust in dryland ecosystems: Applications of environmental magnetism

(IRM; mean of 67 samples = 6.72 × 10 −3 Am 2 kg −1 ) is more than two orders of magnitude greater than that for underlying Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. This contrast is mainly caused by the presence of silt‐size, titanium‐bearing magnetite particles in the surficial deposits and their absence in bedrock. Because of their size, composition, and isolated location, the magnetite particles represent a component of atmospheric dust likely deposited over the past few centuries. The positive correlation of sediment‐ IRM values with amounts of potential plant nutrients reveals the importance of atmospheric dust to soil fertility over much of the American Southwest. Subsequent disturbance of landscapes, by domestic livestock grazing as an example, commonly results in wind erosion, which then depletes exposed surfaces of original aeolian magnetite and associated fine‐grained sediment. Declines in soil fertility and water‐ holding capacity in these settings can be estimated in some field settings via decreases in magnetic susceptibility, relative to nearby undisturbed areas. Along gentle hillslope gradients of the Colorado Plateau, field measures for aeolian magnetite demonstrate that the redistribution of deposited atmospheric dust influences landscape‐level patterns in the distribution of invasive exotic plant species. Our results indicate that environmental magnetism has high potential for assessing the development and degradation of dry landscapes elsewhere.

Phosphorus speciation and solubility in aeolian dust deposited in the interior American West

Aeolian dust is a significant source of phosphorus (P) to alpine oligotrophic lakes, but P speciation in dust and source sediments and its release kinetics to lake water remain unknown. Phosphorus K-edge XANES spectroscopy shows that calcium-bound P (Ca-P) is dominant in 10 of 12 dust samples (41-74%) deposited on snow in the central Rocky Mountains and all 42 source sediment samples (the fine fraction) (68-80%), with a lower proportion in dust probably because acidic snowmelt dissolves some Ca-P in dust before collection. Iron-bound P (Fe-P, ∼54%) dominates in the remaining two dust samples. Chemical extractions (SEDEX) on these samples provide inaccurate results because of unselective extraction of targeted species and artifacts introduced by the extractions. Dust releases increasingly more P in synthetic lake water within 6-72 h thanks to dissolution of Ca-P, but dust release of P declines afterward due to back adsorption of P onto Fe oxides present in the dust. The back sorption is stronger for the dust with a lower degree of P saturation determined by oxalate extraction. This work suggests that P speciation, poorly crystalline minerals in the dust, and lake acidification all affect the availability and fate of dust-borne P in lakes.

OSL methods and field and laboratory data for Mesa Verde soils to support journal article

Thin loess deposits on the uplands of the southeastern Colorado Plateau have previously not been well studied. We sampled deposits and soils from trenches on Hatch Point mesa near Canyonlands National Park, Utah, and from two outcrops in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. At Hatch Point, the oldest buried unit yielded two OSL ages of 10,370 and 7,555 yr; the middle unit yielded 10 OSL ages from 6220 to 1385 yr; and the youngest unit has a single age of 1740 yr. At Mesa Verde, three loess units are preserved in the two outcrops we examined; six OSL ages range from 51 to 17 ka. At least one buried soil is present between two units with ages of about 50 and 40 ka. The ages of the loess units in both study areas correspond well with OSL-dated dune sands in Canyonlands National Park and with dune sands on Black Mesa, Arizona. Particle size distribution combined with chemical and magnetic data indicate that Hatch Point loess was derived mostly from nearby sandstone sources with a small component of far-traveled atmospheric dust, whereas Mesa Verde loess was sourced both from the nearby sandstone and the San Juan River and its tributaries.