Health of workers in gold mines should be improved

- children are exposed to high risk of poisoning

Nairob - Governments around the world protect the health of millions
of prospectors who work with mercury, the human rights organization
Human Rights Watch. Prior to the negotiation of an international,
legally binding agreement on mercury, Human Rights Watch uses with
recommendations to the participating governments. In around 70
countries worldwide small-scale mining is operated, which is often
referred to as "the mining of the little man." The workers use
labor-intensive, technically simple methods. In order to extract gold
from raw ores, they use the cheap and easy to handle mercury. The
highly toxic heavy metal, however, takes on the central nervous system
and is particularly damaging for children. According to doctors, high
mercury exposure affect the development of the brain, kidneys and
digestive system and cause developmental problems. The small miners
come in contact with the heavy metal when they mix raw ore and mercury
with bare hands and - far worse - the burning of the amalgam to
separate the gold inhale toxic fumes.

"Efforts to reduce mercury use in gold mining are important. In the
debate, however, lacks an approach that puts the public health care
for the miners in the forefront, "said Juliane Kippenberg, children's
rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The agreement should mercury
be treated not only as a technical and environmental issue, but also
the right to adequate health care are addressed."

The negotiations will be presented at the Third Session of the
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee of 31 October to 4 November
2011 held under the leadership of the UN Environment Programme in
Nairobi, Kenya.

Mine work is among the world's most dangerous professions.
Nevertheless, work according to the International Labour Organization
in Asia, Latin America and Africa about a million children in the
small-scale mining to reduce gold - some of them already from the age
of six years. Human Rights Watch has documented how children in Papua
New Guinea, Mali and Nigeria exposed to mercury.

A 11-year-old girl from Mali told Human Rights Watch:

"Once the ore is washed, you do this a little mercury. You rub the
brass, and the mercury with both hands. Then, when the mercury has
attracted the gold, you do it in a metal box and burn it. When I'm
done, I'll sell the gold to a dealer. I do it every day ... I know
that mercury is dangerous, but I do not know how. I do not protect me.
"

Children, including infants come into contact with mercury when their
mothers take them to work in the gold mines and burn amalgam in their
immediate vicinity. Mercury can enter the mother's milk in the bodies
of infants and fetuses at risk even in the womb when their mothers are
working with the heavy metal.

Under international law, governments must prevent children working
with mercury. Working with mercury is considered as one of the worst
forms of child labor. International law also requires governments to
reduce the risk of environmental toxins, such as a reduction or a
prohibition of contact with harmful substances.

Currently there is no simple alternative to the use of mercury for
miners, which promote small scale mining in gold. Nevertheless, the
required amounts could be drastically reduced and the effects are much
better controlled. Mine workers should use special containers
("retorts") that capture the mercury vapor. Particularly harmful
practices, such as the use of mercury in residential areas should be
prevented. Industrial gold mines use expensive, complex techniques,
using mercury instead of cyanide.

In its recommendations, Human Rights Watch said that the contract will
oblige governments to adopt national action plans to reduce mercury
use in gold mining. These should include the following measures:

The health of vulnerable groups, particularly children, should be
improved. These are tests and treatments for those who are already
compromised by the use of mercury, and include the collection of
health data, training of medical staff and education about the dangers
of mercury by health centers.

Strategies should be developed within a specified time frame, through
the use of mercury by children and pregnant women are prevented in
small mines. These are educational measures, the enforcement of laws
against child labor, and include programs must work with the children
no longer in the small-scale mining.

It would be set concrete targets for reducing mercury use for the next
five, ten or 20 years.

"Governments have done far too little to protect children from mercury
and to end child labor in small-scale mining," said Kippenberg. "With
this contract, they can prevent hundreds of thousands of children are
exposed to mercury and poisoned."