May 2016
The Integrated Assessment's products have been collected in a 511-page volume that contains all the fact sheets, publications, and other outputs created over the course of the project. A compressed version of this volume is available for download here. If you are interested in the non-compressed version or in a hard copy, please contact the project leaders.
January 2016
All 17 of the papers in our research group's new special edition have been published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Check them out at this link.
July 2015
Our research group has begun publishing papers in a special journal edition in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health titled "Integrated Assessment of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) in Ghana." The journal is open-source and all papers are available for download on the special edition's website.
April 2015
Representatives from our research team met with stakeholders involved in ASGM in Ghana, representing NGOs, miners' associations, academia, and national, local, and traditional government. More details coming soon!
See the links below for press on the event: Ghana Web Modern Ghana NDC UK Joy Online February 2015
Our integrated assessment team is working with the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health to publish a special edition on small-scale gold mining in Ghana. The edition will feature original research by members of our team, as well as synthesis papers from each of our discipline-specific workgroups. Check the special edition's page for updates.
September 2014
Ghana signed the Minamata Convention that regulates mercury use in ASGM on September 24, 2014.
May 2014
PI Elisha Renne and a team of undergraduate researchers have begun research in Nangodi in Ghana's Upper East Region to initiate a neem oil processing project as an alternative to gold mining for women in the area.
April 2014
Our full IA team held its third in-person meeting at the University of Ghana-Legon April 28-30. The thirty attendees gathered to evaluate the response options each workgroup has developed. Among the attendees were four external advisers (see our Researchers & Partners page), who provided insight from their ASGM-related work in other countries. .
February 2014
The three postdoctoral scholars working with our group via the NIH/Fogarty International Center-sponsored PARTNER II program have left the University of Michigan for Ghana to do fieldwork for studies concerning small-scale gold mining and public health. Dr. Eric Odei, Dr. Benedict Calys-Tagoe and Dr. Lauretta Ovadje, all members of the Human Health workgroup, will be spending six months there to examine connections between arsenic exposure and Buruli ulcers, gather injury data, and study health effects of mercury among ASG miners, respectively.
November 2013
Several Ghana-based members of the IA team came to Ann Arbor for meetings related to the West Africa-Michigan CHARTER for GEOHealth. Learn more here: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/wam-charter/home
September 2013
PI Elisha Renne will lead a study abroad project in May-June 2014 to work with women small-scale gold miners and University of Michigan/University of Ghana students to initiate a neem oil processing project in Nangodi, UER, Ghana, in response to suggestions made at the April 2013 UG-Legon workshop. The abundance of neem trees (Azadirachta indica) in the area presents the opportunity to develop neem-related products (oil, soap, insecticide) as an alternative to gold mining for small-scale gold mining by women miners.
August 2013
Natural Science Workgroup Co-leader Mozhgon Rajaee and Project Manager Rachel Long presented on the Integrated Assessment at the 11th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant.
Researchers Dr. Eric Odei and Dr. Benedict Calys-Tagoe (Ghana Health Service physicians and members of the Human Health workgroup) are arriving at the University of Michigan as postdoctoral scholars via the NIH/Fogarty International Center-sponsored PARTNER II program. Dr. Edith Clarke (Program Manager for Occupational and Environmental Health in the Ghana Health Service/Ministry of Health and co-leader of the Human Health group) will join them in October as a mentor. June 2013
The New York Times recently featured several stories on Chinese involvement in small-scale gold mining in Ghana:
Chasing a Golden Dream, Chinese Miners are on the Run in Ghana Ghana Arrests Chinese in Gold Mines Ghana's Crackdown on Chinese Gold Miners Hits One Rural Area Hard April 2013
Our full IA team had its second in-person meeting at the University of Ghana-Legon April 11-12. The twenty attendees made twenty-two presentations on research being contributed to the study, and had lively discussions among diverse disciplines about how to synthesize available data, further engage stakeholders, and generate outputs useful to policy makers and other audiences. Read more about Meeting #2 here.
Several members of the IA team participated in meetings related to the West Africa-Michigan CHARTER for GEOHealth initiative being undertaken by the University of Ghana-Legon, KNUST, the Ghana Ministry of Health/Ghana Health Service, and the University of Michigan. Learn more here: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/wam-charter/home January 2013
Minamata Convention Agreed by Nations: Global Mercury Agreement to Lift Health Threats from Lives of Millions World-Wide
Four years of negotiations among 140 nations have culminated in a global, legally-binding treaty to prevent mercury emissions and releases. The treaty will require countries with small-scale mining to develop strategies to reduce or eliminate mercury in mining operations. Call for Proposals: Revisiting the First International Congress of Africanists in a Globalised World October 24-26, 2013; Hosted by the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon Campus The IAS is hosting an international conference that will bring together scholars, practitioners and activists to revisit the 1962 International Congress of Pan Africanists and chart a course for the future of the study of Africa and its Diasporas. More information about the conference and details about abstract submission can be found here (.pdf). August 2012
Second year PhD student and Natural Science Workgroup co-leader Mozhgon Rajaee won the best student presentation award at the 24th International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) Conference, where she presented her research on mercury exposure in Ghanaian small-scale mining communities via multiple media sources.
Our team had its first annual in-person meeting at the University of Ghana-Legon in Accra, Ghana. Our workgroup co-leaders (see "Researchers and Partners") discussed next steps for our Integrated Assessment. March 2012
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