Gold mining is one of the most destructive industries in the world. It can displace communities, contaminate drinking water, harm workers and destroy pristine environments. It contaminates water and land with mercury and cyanide, endangering the health of people and ecosystems. Gold is omnipresent in the human environment and most people come into contact with it through the use of jewelry, dental devices, implants or treatments for rheumatoid arthritis.
For those looking to invest in gold, a Gold IRA broker can provide guidance on how to best diversify their portfolio. Gold is not a nutrient, but people are exposed to it as a food coloring and in food chains. This review analyzes the dangers faced by the personal and domestic use of gold and the much greater risks posed by occupational exposure to metal in the extraction and processing of gold ores. In the latter situation, regular manual contact or inhalation of toxic or carcinogenic materials such as mercury or arsenic, respectively, presents a much greater danger and greatly complicates the assessment of the toxicity of gold. The uses and risks of new technologies and the use of nanoparticulate gold in cancer therapies and diagnostic medicine constitute an important consideration in the toxicity of gold, in which tissue absorption and distribution are largely determined by particle size and surface characteristics.
Many human problems arise due to the ability of metallic gold to induce allergic contact hypersensitivity. While gold in jewelry can cause allergic reactions, other metals such as nickel, chromium and copper found in white gold or alloys present more serious clinical problems. It is concluded that the toxic risks associated with gold are low in relation to the wide range of possible routes of exposure to the metal in everyday life. However, economic crises are not the only factors affecting gold prices.
A major gold discovery could bring down the price of gold with a stream of new supplies; the wedding season in India, where gold is a popular wedding gift, can underpin it. The health problems of gold miners who worked underground include the decrease in life expectancy; the increase in the frequency of cancers of the trachea, bronchi, lung, stomach and liver; the increase in the frequency of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), silicosis and pleural diseases; the increase in the frequency of insect-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever; the loss of noise-induced hearing; the increase in the prevalence of certain bacterial and viral diseases; and diseases of the blood, skin and the musculoskeletal system. These problems are briefly documented in gold miners in Australia, North America, South America and Africa. In general, HIV infection or excessive consumption of alcohol and tobacco tended to aggravate existing health problems.
Miners who used elemental mercury to amalgamate and extract gold were heavily contaminated with mercury. Among those exposed for work reasons, mercury concentrations in air, fish diet, hair, urine, blood and other tissues significantly exceeded all criteria proposed by several national and international regulatory bodies for the protection of human health. However, large-scale epidemiological evidence of serious mercury-related health problems could not be demonstrated in this cohort. Some gold ETFs invest in the stocks of gold mining companies, adding an additional layer of risk to investment.
Gold stocks can follow the price of physical gold, but they are also susceptible to other types of risk that can have an impact on the stock price. .
