Project site
The project site is an administrative village composed of four natural villages in western Hunan (xiangxi). In 2010 the area had 346 households and a population of 1560. The village is a national poverty county, and the annual average per capita income in 2010 was 2100 yuan.
 
Project Evolution
Research on the impacts of mining on health began in 2000 with a project undertaken by a team of medical geographers at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to examine the environmental and health impacts. Soil and water samples taken over a period of time showed quite serious pollution from mining in the area.  In 2010, with funding from the Social Science Research Council’s China Environment and Health Initiative Collaborative Grants Program, the CAS team conducted a follow-up study, with an additional component to identify pathways of exposure to pollution and residents’ awareness of risks to health.  Since then, further support from SSRC has enabled other experts to join the team to enable a more comprehensive analysis of the relationship between mining, development and environment and health impacts in the area.  This has included specialists in environmental health risk assessment, public health, rural development, land use and ecosystems services, risk perception, and medical anthropology.
 
The team is currently working on developing a set of options for the area to reduce health risks from heavy metal pollution through remediation of soil, public health education, and better risk management.