Kapan Doctor Does Not Believe Mining Can Have Adverse Effects on Human Health

As of April 2017, around 4 dozen mines, of which 14 are metal mines, have been given exploitation authorizations in Armenia’s Syunik province. For years, environmental activists in Armenia have been warning of the dangers and hazardous impacts of mining and tailings ponds on the environment and human health. But all the same, pediatrician Ararat Harutyunyan, acting head of the pediatric department of the Kapan Medical Center, does not believe that the pollution caused by mining directly leads to human diseases.

During the 5 years he has been practicing medicine, Harutyunyan tells Epress.am, he has never encountered a child’s disease resulting from mining. Most commonly, he says, children suffer from bacterial and viral infections. “There was only one baby that was born with a birth defect. If there was anything abnormal going on here, I’d have long reported it to Yerevan,” the pediatrician insists.

Harutyunyan says he does not know whether a study has been conducted in Syunik to determine the possible adverse effects of mining on human health; nevertheless, the pediatrician in convinced that “it can’t be so bad.”

“The number of cancer cases is growing all over the world, and I don’t think it has to do much with mining. Of course, mining does have some adverse environmental effects, but I wouldn’t say that it negatively affects the health of our children. There are so many brilliant children in Meghri and Kajaran – you can check for yourself. And you can’t claim it’s a result of some kind of radiation exposure.”

The pediatrician days he is “not particularly concerned” about the possible growth in the number of new cancer cases in Kapan: “I don’t care at all – that’s not my expertise. I have no intention of writing a dissertation or becoming an environmental activist. There have always been mines in Kapan, Kajaran and Meghri – and now they have been turned into a topic of speculation.”

Davit Hakobyan, a representative of the Kapan-based “Guides from the South” tourism development NGO, is convinced that physicians cannot be unaware of the adverse effects of mining: “That’s just not possible. They are doctors and they are naturally able to establish what causes specific diseases. I guess they have their reasons for not speaking out.”

The population of the Syunik province, Hakobyan says, have varying attitudes toward mining and its impacts: “There are three groups of people – those who lack awareness of the issue and do not understand the dangers of mining; those who do understand but are indifferent; and those who work in these mines and cannot afford to talk about any issues. I don’t think mine workers are the healthiest of people, but they have families to take care of.”

The new mines which are only starting exploitation, according to the environmentalist, are just as hazardous to the the environment and human health as the long-operated ones: “The gold mine in Mazra is located right next to the protected zone of the Shikahogh Reserve. It is pretty much located in the reserve – a 200-meter distance does not make much of a difference. Right now there is research work being carried out there. The gold mines in Lichk and Tashtun have already begun exploitation, and their negative impact on the environment will become evident soon enough.”

In 2012-2013, Hakobyan says, environmentalists, activists and civil society representatives in Syunik came forward with a civic initiative to rally against the Ler-Ex company and the mining activities it carried out in the province. The company, which used to belong to the family of former Syunik governor Surik Khachatryan, has now stopped operating, but during its relatively short period of operation, it managed to “evidently and irreversibly pollute the Geghi river” by creating a tailings dump in a nearby gorge.

“We did not really go far in our fight against Ler-Ex because some of the so-called environmental organizations are in fact fed by the mining industry. But nevertheless, a small group of true environmentalists did take certain lawful measures to disrupt these activities. I’m not saying we won, but the work at the mine there was at least subsequently stopped. Although, it did have an irreversible and destructive impact on the environment,” he says.

Note, in 2016, the American University of Armenia (AUA) Center for Responsible Mining (CRM) tested soiland drinking water samples from 27 schools and 25 kindergartens of 10 mining or mineral processing communities throughout Armenia. The soil samples collected were tested for concentrations of arsenic, copper, cadmium, mercury and lead. The water samples were tested for arsenic, arsenic (III), cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, zinc, manganese, aluminum, bor, chromium (VI), iron and nickel.

The study, full reports on which are available on the CRM website, found alarming levels of metal concentrations in both soil and water samples.