Gold Mining and its Impact on Agricultural Land, Public Health, Violation of the Law: A Study on Poboya Traditional Mining, Palu, Indonesia Golar1,*, Basir-Cyio Muhammad2, Rusydi Muhammad3, Bakri Rahmat4, Bohari5, Pratama Muhammad Fardhal2, Laihi Muhammad Alfit A.2 1Faculty of Forestry, Tadulako University, City of Palu, Indonesia 2Faculty of Agriculture, Tadulako University, City of Palu, Indonesia 3Faculty of Math and Science, Tadulako University, City of Palu, Indonesia 4Faculty of Law, Tadulako University, City of Palu, Indonesia 5Nutrition Department Faculty of Public Health, Tadulako University, City of Palu, Indonesia *Corosponding Author: Golar, Faculty of Forestry, Tadulako University, City of Palu, Indonesia, e-mail: golar.tadulako@gmail.com
Online published on 23 December, 2019. Abstract The purpose of the present study was analyzing public health, social economy and law enforcement efforts of the community around Poboyagold mine area. The research method was quantitative survey on the community around Poboya gold mine area, Palu. The sample was 125 people. The research variables were public health status, social economy, and law enforcement effort. The data analysis was descriptive analysis on each variable. The research result was the common health issues among the respondents in the past month were skin diseases(75.2%), ARI (65.60%), hypertension (42, 40%) and cramping on legs/arms(35.20%). The public health status was mostly normal (IMT 18.5–25.0) (48.00%) and underweight (IMT < 18.5) (42.40%). The occupations were gold miners (52.00%)and farmers (38.40%). The respondents’ income was low, although most of the respondents were miners. The common types of crime around the gold mine area based on people's reports were harassment (72.0%), fraud (68.0%), and prostitution (60.0%). The conclusion is gold mine location near human settlements causes health issues related to mining activities, such as mercury exposure and change of occupation and land conversion, as well as high crime rate in the mining area which raises concerns among the community around the mine area. Top Keywords Public health status, income, criminality. Top |