Richard C. Paddock reports for National Geographic:
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[…] Millions of people in 70 countries across Asia, Africa, and South America have been exposed to high levels of mercury as small-scale mining has proliferated over the past decade. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that at least 10 million miners, including at least four million women and children, are working in small “artisanal” gold mines, which produce as much as 15 percent of the world’s gold.
More than a million miners scratch out an illegal living digging for gold in at least 850 hot spots, says Yuyun Ismawati, a 2009 winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize who has conducted extensive research on small-scale mining. Many of them fall prey to corrupt authorities who take a share of the gold rather than enforcing a law that bans mercury use.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,500 islands with the world’s fourth largest population, has one of the worst mercury problems, according to Stephan Bose-O’Reilly, a children’s health expert who volunteers at the Indonesian environmental group BaliFokus Foundation.
“Indonesia is a real global hot spot,” Bose-O’Reilly said during a recent trip to Indonesia examine miners in the gold fields. “I haven’t seen anything worse than here.”
- State of emergency in Peru over mercury poisoning from illegal gold mining
- Zimbabwe’s desperate gold rush poisons children with mercury
- How mercury poisons gold miners and enters the food chain
Filed under: Asia & Oceania, Health, Indonesia, Metals & Minerals
