Kakamega’s gold belt holds no glitter for impoverished miners

The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has been urging governments to set up structures to reduce the level of mercury, a toxic metal used by the miners to extract gold, and also to improve the hygienic conditions in the mines.

Globally, the miners remain a major source of mercury pollution in the areas they operate and most of them risk their lives in an unregulated black market that accounts for up to a quarter of the world’s gold. Apart from mercury, the miners are exposed to other hazards.
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