Mining is considered one of the most dangerous forms of child labor. Children are at constant risk of injury and death from accidents. Even more pervasive and insidious are the risks of long-term and often devastating health problems. The children suffer lung damage caused by breathing dust and particulates, muscular and skeletal damaged caused by carrying heavy loads, and worst of all, a range of neurological problems caused by exposure to mercury, which is used to separate the gold from the rock.
Panning with mercury pollutes the watershed and can contaminate food supplies; burning gold ore with mercury releases toxic fumes. Children, who are enlisted to purchase mercury and bring it back to the mines, regularly handle mercury. The parents seem unaware of these dangers. Some that I talked with were proud that their very young children could perform such hard labor so well. When I asked one woman if her daughter, a little girl in a dress expertly panning in the stream, was 5 or 6 years old, the mother corrected me, saying, "No, she's 4!
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