I have seen distressing levels of mercury pollution in the Philippines with my own eyes. In the village of Malaya, in Camarines Norte province, I observed how light-grey, mercury-contaminated tailings from gold processing plants flowed straight into the river where children were bathing and working. One was 15-year-old “Michelle,” who had started processing gold with mercury when she was eight and began suffering from spasms, another symptom of mercury poisoning, at nine. Michelle is one of many: in the Philippines and globally, artisanal and small-scale gold mining is the largest sector of mercury use.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/09/philippines-mercury-poisoning-report-highlights-risks
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