There certainly is no virtue when toxic wastes are flushed into a creek that links the Bacuyangan River in Hinobaan, says a PEMO finding. These deadly cocktail of cyanide and mercury kill the freshwater food chain that includes fish and shrimps. The poisons could eventually find themselves in human diets.
PEMO estimates that in a hole, small-scale miners can extract 10 to 20 grams of gold from ores, with a gram of gold costing P1,700. But wealth doesn’t necessarily translate to health.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to mine and you could reduce many people’s lifetimes. PEMO’s Eriberto Madalag said that because of their limited technical skills in handling hazardous chemicals, the health of small-scale miners is put to risk, and have affected the environment too.
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