Abstract
The Lavreotiki-Lavrion area, situated in the south-eastern tip of mainland Hellas, has one of the longest mining, ore beneficiation and smelting legacies worldwide. With a history of over 5000 years of argentiferous Pb–Zn ore exploitation, Lavrion is a place that shaped human civilisation by being a major wealth producing centre of the ancient world but also represents one of the few significant industrial developments of the modern Hellenic Republic, since the second part of the 19th century. The long history of mining, ore beneficiation and smelting activities produced a vast amount of potentially toxic wastes. In the post-mining era of Lavrion, during the 1980’s, cross-sectional epidemiological studies diagnosed a severe problem of blood-Pb poisoning in primary school-age children and highlighted the seriousness of environmental contamination on the health of the local population. The first part of this review deals with the contamination problem in the area with respect to Pb, and discusses the results of detailed geochemical and epidemiological studies, based on the source-pathway-receptor model. The second part of the review presents the holistic evaluation of the contamination hazard, the assessment of health-related risk to residents, and the socio-economical impact of the proposed remediation plan to the local community. The case of Lavrion-Lavreotiki area is a worldwide reference example of the environmental, economical, societal and health-related implications that the thousand-years long legacy of mineral resources exploitation has left behind.
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Source: Maps (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f) from Demetriades, 2011, Figs. 25.6 (p.437), 25.4 (p.435), 25.8 (p.444), 25.9 (p.445), 25.10 (p.447), respectively
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Acknowledgements
The results of the two projects carried out in Lavrion and Aghios Constantinos and the Lavreotiki peninsula by the Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (presently Hellenic Survey of Geology and Mineral Exploration) were co-financed by the Attiki Region from the European Commission Structural Funds programme and the Hellenic Ministry of Industry and Energy (presently the Ministry of Development) for the national contribution. The project of ‘Soil Rehabilitation in the Municipality of Lavrion’ was co-financed by the European Commission’s LIFE programme 93/GR/A14/GR/4576 and the Hellenic State. All scientists and supporting staff are thanked for their work input, without which the completion of these projects would have not been possible. Golden Software is thanked for the greatly reduced annual software maintenance licence for SurferTM v.20, which was used for plotting all maps. The research carried out by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund) and Hellenic International Funds through the Operational programme “Human resources management, Education and Lifelong Learning” of the National Strategic Reference Framework 2014-2020: “Funding programme for second circle of postgraduate studies.” Further, the kind contribution of Geohellas S.A. for providing the clay materials and Edafomichaniki S.A. for the characterisation of soil is acknowledged.
Funding
The project of ‘Soil Rehabilitation in the Municipality of Lavrion’ was co-financed by the European Commission’s LIFE programme 93/GR/A14/GR/4576 and the Hellenic State.
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ZK and P-MK cooperated in the writing of the manuscript, while AA and AD acted as mentors, and refined the manuscript.
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Kypritidou, Z., Kourgia, PM., Argyraki, A. et al. Do humans take good care of their offspring as animals do…! The Lavreotiki and Lavrion 'sagas', Hellenic Republic—Part 1: Historical outline and mapping of lead contamination. Environ Geochem Health 45, 1107–1116 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01080-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01080-0