When Gold Beckons

The Star on 3rd February, 2009 quoted an AP report of how gold miners in Indonesia use mercury to extract gold in polluted ponds. Tens of thousands of remote mining sites have sprouted in Asia, Latin America and Africa where enforcement is lax. Small scale gold mining is the second worst source of mercury pollution in the world, after the burning of fossil fuels.

Since the price of gold has tripled in the last 7 years, these small miners have forsaken their own health in search of wealth.

The tropical rainforest landscape in Kalimantan in Indonesia has been turned to a virtual desert with dots of mercury laced mining ponds.

The continuous use of mercury is a cause of concern as mercury is a neurotoxin. Because it is a slow killer, users are skeptical of its side effects. Toxic effects include damage to the central nervous system, brain, kidney, and lungs and adversely affects the mouth, gum and teeth. Mercury poisoning can result in several diseases, symptoms of which include numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect foetuses in the womb and infants. Exposure over long periods of time or heavy exposure to mercury vapor can result in brain damage and ultimately death. Women who have been exposed to mercury in pregnancy have sometimes given birth to children with serious birth defect.

A small scale mining problem may well add to the global pollution problem if governments concerned remain apathetic.