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Duku, 8, and Yoyo, 10, earn a living doing difficult and dangerous labor in Indonesia's gold mines.
They search for gold residue in tiny underground tunnels, often located in places where only small children can climb. After they locate gold ore, it is shipped to factories where the processing sickens the workers and towns around them.
These processing centers use mercury, one of the world's most potent neurotoxins, to extract gold from the ore. Workers are often exposed to the mercury throughout the refinement process, sometimes breathing it in directly.
Most of the equipment operators get sick from exposure, according to Demitria Durano, who owns a processing center in the Philippines. "They look pale and their skin turns yellow," she said.
The centers also emit mercury smoke, affecting many nearby residents. Charlita Balwiss, a health inspector in the town of Diwalwal in the Philippines, estimated that 50 of people in the town show symptoms of mercury poisoning.
Mercury contamination is not limited to the towns near ore processing centers; it can travel far through seafood such as shrimp, poisoning people around the world.
Another compound, borax, could accomplish the same purpose as mercury and provide a less-toxic alternative. Borax is being used in several gold processing centers in the Philippines, but older institutions are slow to adopt it, Gutierrez said.
Warm up questions
- How does gold go from being a metal in a rock to gold jewelry?
- Where are the Philippines?
- What is mercury? Do you see it anywhere in everyday life?
Critical thinking questions
- Who were some of the characters in the story who contributed to the mercury pollution and health effects? What would need to happen for them to change their actions?
- What are some of the negative effects of widespread child labor on a country's population?
- Why would ore processing centers use mercury, even at the risk of harming workers? How could they be compelled to change to a safer alternative?
- How do national governments play a role in limiting harm to workers?
- What can you do to challenge labor practices that harm children?
