The Sunday Mail
Thousands of Zimbabweans living in areas where gold panning activities are the main source of livelihood are on a daily basis exposed to mercury poisoning.
The atmosphere is electric.
Dirty and shabbily dressed men — most of whom are wearing overalls and gumboots — wriggle to the music that is blaring from a speaker hung on a pole and dagga hut.
Amid the pomp and fanfare, a scuffle ensues and a man suddenly withdraws a two-edged knife from his back pocket and viciously stab his rival.
The attacker, without showing the slightest hint of remorse, simply walks away as the injured reveler moans in agony.
As he walks away, the attacker is heard shouting obscenities, boasting that he can kill and get away with murder.
Drinking places that are frequented by illegal gold miners are synonymous with extreme cases of violence and other forms of misbehavior.
Illegal gold miners, better known as makorokoza, are known to have a penchant for violence.
Medical experts have since attributed the aggressiveness in these illegal gold miners to mercury poisoning.
Thousands of Zimbabweans living in areas where gold panning activities are the main source of livelihood are on a daily basis exposed to mercury poisoning.
Mercury, which is used to refine gold, is a highly poisonous element which can affect the brain, nervous and reproductive systems if inhaled as vapour.
Samples tested by the Global Mercury Project have shown that gold millers and illegal miners in Kadoma have higher levels of poisonous mercury in their blood, urine and hair.
The Global Mercury Project was implemented in 2007 and it sought ways of limiting mercury contamination in international waters from artisanal and small-scale gold miners.
Artisanal gold miners use mercury for separating gold from gold ore and there have been several cases of suspected mercury poisoning cases in the heavily contaminated areas of Kadoma, Kwekwe and Shurugwi, among others.
In such areas, the poisonous effluent is disposed in water bodies, exposing both humans and aquatic life to great risk.
Exposure to mercury can have deadly consequences.
A research carried by the Centre for Natural Resources Governance revealed that pregnant women in Kadoma are exposed to mercury — a factor that might result in the women delivering babies with body deformities.
Some of the symptoms of mercury poisoning include insomnia, mental problems, mood swings and severe headaches, among other health problems.
Mental loss and diarrhea are some of the health complications that have been attributed to mercury poisoning.
Recently, a Kwekwe couple gave birth to a severely deformed baby in a case suspected to have been linked to mercury poisoning.
The mother is one of the many women gold panners who eke a living out of illegal gold mining.
According to the World Health Organisation, there is evidence to prove that more chronic varieties of acute mercury poisoning related illnesses are accumulating.
Government at one time considered banning the use of mercury as it poses serious threats to human life and the environment.
Doctor George Mhinga, a Kadoma-based medical doctor, confirmed that some residents in the city might be suffering, without them knowing it, from several effects of mercury poisoning.
“It is a known fact that once the human body is exposed to mercury, a number of diseases might crop up. Kadoma residents are exposed to mercury and some of them might be suffering from mercury poisoning-related diseases without even knowing it,” Dr Mhinga said.
Dr Mhinga said the Kadoma city fathers are sitting on a health time bomb.
“It seems the city fathers are in denial. Exposure to mercury causes a lot of health complications. Kadoma residents are, just like everyone else, not immune to mercury poisoning. The sale of mercury should be regulated,” Dr Mhinga said.
Hospitals in Zimbabwe are not equipped with machinery that detect mercury in human bodies.
Despite the fact that thousands of Kadoma residents are exposed to the deadly substance on a daily basis, Mr Daniel Chirundu, the city’s director of Health and Environmental Services, elected to be casual when questioned about mercury exposure.
“We do not have cases of mercury poisoning in Kadoma,” Mr Chirundu, who spoke through his secretary, said.
This is despite the fact that thousands of the city‘s residents are exposed to mercury on a daily basis.
The city has not conducted any research to prove Mr Chirundu’s claims.
A survey conducted by The Sunday Mail revealed that mercury is readily available in pharmacies and hardware shops in the gold-mining city.
To purchase mercury, there is no need for any form of licensing.
Mercury is cheap, abundant, and easy to use.
Those that work in pharmacies are exposed to the deadly element when they repackage the element.
A teaspoon of mercury sells for US$15.
The majority of the small-scale gold miners are not aware of the risks associated with the exposure to mercury.
“I started mining when I was 14 and have never heard of mercury poisoning. Even if mercury is poisonous, we will continue using it since we do not have other alternative means to extract gold.
“It is better to die of sicknesses caused by mercury than to die of hunger,” Elvis Mutiunokura, an illegall gold miner who pans for gold just outside Kwekwe, said.
Mercury poisoning has become a global scourge, with an estimated 100 million people being directly or indirectly exposed to mercury compounds.
It is estimated that between 10 and 15 million people worldwide are artisanal gold miners.
The use of mercury has been banned in the developed world.
Mercury used in gold mining causes 30 percent of global mercury pollution.
Gadgets that uses mercury such as thermometers are now being replaced by new mercury-free technologies.
Ghana, which is the leading gold producing country on the continent, has already abandoned the use of mercury in gold and silver recovery.
