Abstract:

Mining has proven to be a highly polluting activity affecting ecosystems and human populations. This study aims to offer an approximation to the effects of heavy metals on human health, present evidence of this contamination in soil and water, and highlight the scarce relationship between mining as an economic activity and the well-being produced in the communities where it settles. To do this, a mixed methodology is used, consisting of a bibliographic review about the polluting effects of mining, the use of open data and information on the socioeconomic conditions of mining towns, as well as a soil and water analysis consisting of sampling, processing, and detection of heavy metals, which, finally, makes it possible to demonstrate gold and silver mining as a burden on health and poverty in those places where it settles, such is the case of the communities surrounding the mines in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, where the conditions of poverty not only could not be overcome, but have deepened, and where the health of the population is also put at risk as a consequence of environmental contamination by heavy metals.

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