Levels of arsenic and mercury in human blood from Tarkwa and its environs, a mining area in Wassa West District of Ghana

Abstract

This paper examines the levels of Hg and As in blood samples of inhabitants of Tarkwa and its environs, a mining impacted area in contrast with the populations of Akatsi and its environs, a non-mining impacted area. Blood samples were analysed for arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) using instrumental neutron activation analysis. The prepared samples were irradiated at a thermal neutron flux of 5x1011n cm -2 s -1 using the Ghana Research Rector-1. An independent one- tailed student t-test was used to compare the means of both the experimental and the control subjects in order to establish the statistical significant differences between the two groups. The level of probability at which significant differences existed between the groups was set at p 0.05) implying the level observed in the experimental group could be due to the mining activities in the area. Keywords : arsenic level, mercury level, human blood, blood samples