Impacts of mining on environment pollution with reference to women's health

Mining operations generates substantial quantities of airborne respirable dust, which leads to the development of lung disease in mine workers. Mine worker's pneumoconiosis and silicosis are lung diseases that have adversely impacted the health of thousands of mine workers. The increasing trend of opencast mining leads to release of huge amount of dust. These air borne dust particles, generally below 100 micron in size, are environmentally nuisance and cause health hazards as an ill effect of mining activities. Opencast extraction activities like drilling, blasting, material handling and transport are a potential source of air pollution. Therefore, a detailed study on emission sources and quantification of pollutant concentration by means of dispersion modeling is required to access the environmental impact of an opencast mine. Mining based industries play an important role in improving country's economic growth and in generating employment. On the other hand mining activities and its auxiliary industries have the potential to cause environmental degradation. Women and children are constantly exposed to high risks of death and terminal illnesses due to constant exposure to dust and pollution. Studies have proved that their exposure to various hazardous pollutants has been far above permissible levels.