ABSTRACT
HgEx is an expert system for risk assessment of mercury discharge from small-scale gold mining operations. It was developed to address the complex problems surrounding mercury pollution by artisanal miners. The HgEx system integrates information on biology, chemistry, geochemistry, and medical, social and political issues in order to evaluate mercury contamination for a single site or region. The program attempts to diagnose the possibility of bioaccumulation that is related to environmental transformations of metallic mercury emitted by artisanal miners into a most toxic form, methylmercury. HgEx was designed to reduce the need for sophisticated analytical equipment and to provide information and diagnoses to nontechnical people.
