In villages throughout the islands of Indonesia where gold is mined and processed, there are hot spots of what the locals call "uncommon diseases." Babies are born with twisted and shortened limbs, cleft palettes and missing fingers and toes, microcephalus (abnormally small heads) and hydrocephalus (excess accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid.) Some children, who seem normal at birth, have seizures when they are a few months old, develop high fevers, and over time, lose the ability to walk and talk. For others, the onset of symptoms is later.
Adults, too, are affected, though often their ailments are less obvious to the untrained eye. Some shake uncontrollably. Others move very slowly. The most severely afflicted lie dying on mats.
Investigators suspect that these so-called "uncommon diseases" have a common denominator: mercury poisoning.
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