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Next month 140 countries will sign the U.N. Minamata Convention, which aims to regulate the use of mercury to reduce rates of contamination in countries where small-scale gold miners operate. The convention is named after the world's biggest mass mercury poisoning, which occurred 60 years ago in Japan. The cause of the poisoning was identified only 30 years later as a local plastics factory that was dumping mercury into a nearby bay.
Mercury is a neurotoxin that affects the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls movement. It also harms the kidneys and other organs. Hand tremors, coordination problems and headaches are among the early symptoms of mercury intoxication, which can also cause birth defects.
Small-scale miners, who are responsible for producing about 15 percent of the world's gold, typically use mercury to extract gold from rock or soil, putting themselves and the environment at risk of mercury poisoning. Approximately 10 to 15 million people are involved in the practice worldwide, including 3 million in Indonesia.
Miners wash crushed gold ore with mercury by rivers with their bare hands, poisoning themselves and waterways. Afterwards the gold, now an amalgam of mercury and gold, is brought to smelters which burn away the mercury, poisoning people and the environment nearby.
