The Metal Mining Environment and Health Alliance is a group of scientists, policy makers and industry representatives who are studying the impact of metal mining on human health and the environment around the world. Our goal is to devise, recommend, and implement policies and strategies to prevent and/or mitigate the health and environmental effects of metal mining and smelting. We have formed three working groups to address key issues relating to the consequences of metals mining and smelting:

Working Groups

1. Decreasing exposures at mines and smelters. This group will focus on ambient contamination at current and proposed formal sites by controlling emissions and waste disposal.

Leaders: Perry Gottesfeld and Steve Hilts

2. The informal sector and remediating the legacy. This group will focus on controlling/eliminating the adverse impact of informal sector mining and smelting, and remediating the legacy of metal mining.

Leaders: Michael Kosnett and Mary Jean Brown will focus on the informal sector, Ian von Lindern will focus on remediation.

3. Clarifying the supporting science. This group will focus on examining the current literature on the health effects of mining, including animal studies, and especially human epidemiologic studies.

Leaders: Veronica Monti, Lilian Corra, Deborah Cory-Slechta and Joseph Brain

In addition, Juan Fernando Caicedo is working on the financial, regulatory, and policy levers that affect mining practices.

The Alliance holds two meetings each year to discuss the progress of the working groups and interact with other experts who can help in the creation and implementation of policy. We met in Atlanta on November 5 and 6, 2009 and in Bozeman, Montana on May 4 and 5, 2010. We are planning another meeting in Tokyo, Japan in fall 2011.

The articles and reports posted on this Web site are intended to provide important background on the issues related to metal mining and smelting and health. Harvard cannot explicitly confirm the completeness and accuracy of this information, but has made every effort to select key tools and data from a global array of reliable initiatives focused on mitigation and prevention of adverse impacts of metal mining on the environment and human health.