Health Minister Presents Medical Team To Deal with Lithium Mining Impacts

Zlatibor Loncar (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar on Aug. 6 presented a team of health experts which will, according to him, deal with lithium mining impacts on human health. 

“We have formed a team which will be examining potential negative impacts on human health in Serbia, in case the lithium mining project goes ahead. It will be the group’s main task,” Loncar told reporters in Belgrade. 

The minister said that team members would include Verica Jovanovic, the chief of the Institute of Public Health of Serbia Dr Milan Jovanović Batut, Bela Balint, a research fellow and hematologist, Sanja Milenkovic, the head of the Department of Hygiene at the Belgrade Faculty of Medicine, and Aleksandar Aleksic, the chief of the Military Medical Academy’s Institute of Medicine.. 

Other team members are Vladislav Vukomanovic, the director of the Mother and Child Hospital Vukan Cupic, the hospital’s Transplantation Department chief, Dragana Vujic, Radivoje Andjelkovic, the head of the Defense Ministry’s Military Healthcare Department, and Igor Dragicevic, the assistant director of the Sabac Public Health Service, the latter tasked with monitoring risk factors in the territory of the Macva District. 

Loncar said that for the time being the team had no tasks as they had not received a study based on which they could provide an opinion. He added that if meanwhile a request was made for lithium mining and development of relevant studies, analyses would be performed and the results made public about potential impacts on human health. 

The minister also said that the team members would be making field trips and visits to the sites planned for lithium mining to collect data about all lithium mines across the world. He stressed that before the team gave its opinion on potential lithium mining impacts on human health and the environment, no decision in relation to mine opening would be made.