Air quality risks pertaining to tailings storage facilities within the Witwatersrand goldfields

Abstract

Pollution related to Witwatersrand TSFs poses a number of hazards to surrounding communities. The major primary pathways by which contamination can enter the environment from TSFs are: • the airborne pathway, where radon gas and windblown dust disperse outwards from mine sites, • the waterborne pathway, either via ground or surface water or due to direct access, where people are contaminated, • or externally irradiated after unauthorized entry to a mine site, • by living in settlements directly adjacent to TSFs or in some cases, living in settlements on the contaminated footprints of abandoned mines (Sutton, 2007).