Hundreds
of thousands of adults and children work in Tanzania’s small gold
mines. And Tanzania is not alone. The International Labour Organization
estimates that one million children work in mining globally. Human
Rights Watch also has documented children’s mercury exposure in mining
communities in Mali, Ghana, and Papua New Guinea.
For
these children, mercury may be cutting their lives short.
When I visited a mining community in Tanzania recently, I spoke to
children working with mercury and observed toddlers inhaling toxic fumes
from the burning mercury-gold amalgam. What can be done to protect
these children from mercury? Does anyone even care?
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