Japan said bringing misery to rural Indonesia with mercury exports

“Mercury is illegally imported to Indonesia from developed countries, such as Japan, through a third country and is used there,” she said.
Small-scale gold miners are active in Asia as well as Africa.
Mercury is used during the refining process. The toxic fumes that result pose a serious health risk to workers. The use of mercury also contaminates the soil and water supply. One of the problems with mercury is that it does not break down in the environment.
According to the global NGO network IPEN and other sources, hair samples of residents in an Indonesian community had three times the mercury concentration as the U.S. environmental standard.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/AJ201310080010