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Assignment: Indonesia's Mercury Menace

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Indonesia's mercury menace

19/09/2013

Indonesia's Mercury Menace

BBC World Service - Assignment, Indonesia's Mercury Menace

How mercury poisoning is threatening the health of Indonesian gold-miners

How mercury poisoning is threatening the health of Indonesian gold-miners and their environment.

Up to 20% of the world’s gold is produced by informal mining, with millions of people in the developing world relying on it for a living. But the quickest and easiest way to produce gold is by mixing finely ground rock with mercury and burning it off. 

Linda Pressly has visited Indonesia, where gold workers and communities are showing signs of mercury poisoning, and where the paddy fields of Lombok have recorded the highest concentration of mercury ever found in rice.  

(Image: Toxic mercury being used by small-scale gold miners, Indonesia. BBC Copyright)

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