Curated Collections

The overarching goal of this handbook is to establish a common knowledge base on the impacts of mercury use in the ASM sector on human health and the environment among all the stakeholders involved in or connected with artisanal gold mining.

This framework document provides a pragmatic approach for designing representative studies and developing uniform sampling guidelines to support estimates of morbidity that are explicitly linked to exposure to land-based contaminants from ASGM activities.

This brochure provides a brief overview on the health and environmental impacts of mercury, cyanide and silica dust in the sector. Chemical risks do not only affect miners, but also their communities. Mercury and cyanide are both highly toxic to human health. However, only mercury persists in the environment and can travel long distances in the environment. Exposure to very fine silica dust is a common hazard in hard rock mining, but one that can easily be prevented

This curriculum was designed to be used globally in training healthcare workers to recognize, diagnose, treat, and prevent mercury toxicity among ASGM miners, their families, and their communities. This publication contains all elements of the curriculum, including recommended agendas, pre- and post-course evaluations, slide sets with narratives on each slide, lesson plans, and tools for classroom activities.

To support ministries of health develop their detailed public health strategies for inclusion in  ASGM National Action Plans (NAP), WHO, in collaboration with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, developed a research approach. The approach was pilot tested in three African countries in the process of developing a NAP. The evidence collected and the recommendations that emerged by applying the research approach guided ministries of health and other stakeholders in developing the public health strategies. This document is also available in French, Spanish and Portuguese. 

Researchers or other assessors should use this guide to help ministries of health develop a public health strategy as part of the ASGM National Action Plan. The evidence collected will clarify key issues to consider for the public health strategy. The approach for collecting and using the evidence was developed by WHO and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and pilot-tested in three countries – Ghana, Mozambique and Nigeria – between 2017 and 2019.

Also available in Arabic, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

This document was created to guide the training of health practitioners on certain health risks that are common in the sector. While there are many health risks in the ASGM sector, this guide is limited to risks specifically related to ASGM, particularly those that are rarely covered by general university professional trainings.

 This site contains multiple information documents on the dangerous effects of mercury such as: health impacts, tools for actions, guidance documents, fact sheet and other educational materials.