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Atmospheric pollution in North Africa (ecosystems–atmosphere interactions): a case study in the mining basin of El Guettar–M’Dilla (southwestern Tunisia)

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Abstract

Air quality transcends all scales with in the atmosphere from the local to the global with handovers and feedbacks at each scale interaction. Air quality has manifold effects on health, ecosystems, heritage and climate. New insights into the characterisation of both natural and anthropogenic emissions are reviewed looking at both natural (e.g. dust and lightning) as well as plant emissions. In the phosphate mining area (El Guettar–M’Dilla basin: Southwestern Tunisia), several diseases have been known as cancer, respiratory, allergies, cardiovascular, dental fluorosis, stress, etc. These diseases are directly related with the installation of the industrial sector of the CPG (from 1896) and the deforestation and the ecosystem degradation (fauna and flora).

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Editor and the anonymous reviewers and would like to thank the Water, Energy and Environmental Laboratory (L3E)-ENIS-Sfax-Tunisia, the Faculty of Medicine of Sfax and the Regional Blood Transfusion Centre of Gafsa. Special thanks are directed to the staff members of Gafsa Water Resources Division/Agriculture Ministry and the staff members of the CPG-GCT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water, Energy and Environmental Laboratory (L3E)-National Engineers College of Sfax (Tunisia) (ENIS), Street of Soukra Km 3.5, BP.W: 3038, Sfax, Tunisia

    Naziha Mokadem, Younes Hamed & Imed Gargouri

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences of Gabes, City Campus Erriadh-Zirig, 6072, Gabes, Tunisia

    Younes Hamed

  3. Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Amina Ben Sâad & Imed Gargouri

  4. Regional Blood Transfusion Centre of Gafsa, Gafsa, Tunisia

    Amina Ben Sâad

Authors
  1. Naziha Mokadem
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  2. Younes Hamed
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  3. Amina Ben Sâad
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  4. Imed Gargouri
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Correspondence to Younes Hamed.

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Mokadem, N., Hamed, Y., Sâad, A.B. et al. Atmospheric pollution in North Africa (ecosystems–atmosphere interactions): a case study in the mining basin of El Guettar–M’Dilla (southwestern Tunisia). Arab J Geosci 7, 2071–2079 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-013-0852-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-013-0852-2

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