The Republic of Zambia is home to vast mineral resources including copper, cobalt, zinc and lead. Until 1994, Zambia's principal producer of lead and zinc was the Broken Hill mine in Kabwe, Zambia, the provincial capital of Central Province located about 110 km north of the national capital of Lusaka. In 2007, Time magazine named Kabwe one of the 11 world's most polluted places due to the extent of lead contamination and the resulting serious health implications for humans and animals.

With this project, we are initiating research collaboration between Miami University Global Health faculty, faculty at the University of Zambia in Lusaka, Zambia (in the Integrated Water Resource Management Centre and the Department of Public Health), the Zambian Water Resources Management Authority, the Zambian Environmental Management Agency, and faculty at Georgia College in Milledgeville, GA.

This collaboration will result in a uniquely holistic pilot of the environmental contaminations (in soil, water, air, and plants), pathways to human exposure, and the consequences of that exposure on human health. The beginning pilot work will culminate in an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with the University of Zambia and a proposal to seek external funding to conduct a holistic, thorough study of the environmental contamination of Kabwe and its impacts on human health and wellbeing.