Particularly affected is the artisanal and small-scale gold mining and refining industry, which is the largest source of mercury pollution worldwide and is booming in such countries as Thailand, Peru and Senegal due to high gold prices.
The Minamata Convention requires governments to develop national action plans to ban the most harmful forms of mercury use, promote mercury-free mining methods, protect children and women of childbearing age and seek to improve the health of miners.
Children employed in small-scale gold mining are at serious risk as they work with mercury or are present during the burning of the mercury-gold amalgam, the non-governmental advocacy group Human Rights Watch said.
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