Blog 7 In Nigerian Gold Rush, Lead Poisons Thousands Of Children

In northern Nigeria thousands of kids are suffering from lead poisoning linked from illegal gold mines.  These children are either dying or in terms slowly dying and experiencing the awful factors that come along with lead poisoning.  This event isn’t just now happening but has been occurring over time and that is what lead poisoning does to the child’s body it builds up over a number of years in the body and can cause serious health problems.  Lead poisoning can be fatal.   A total of over 400 kids have died in this region and many more suffer daily with the affects.  Doctors without borders have stationed clinics to try and help children in need and think this is one of the worse epidemics of lead poisoning ever.  One child named Yusuf who suffers from lead poisoning had a level of lead in his blood of 150 micrograms per deciliter in 2010 and The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention has stated this is 30 times over the level for dangerous.  Doctors have been able to lower it down to 50 micrograms but currently now he suffers from being blind and not being to speak or walk at age 5.  Illegal gold mines in Nigeria have become common since the price of gold has gone up over the past years.  Some foreign companies have cracked down to stop some deaths from occurring.  Doctors without Borders have told some companies to take their business somewhere else.  Since some of the mining is illegal taking the steps to clean the dust isn’t going to happen.  No one thinks this problem is going to get better anytime soon but only get worse especially since the price of gold probably won’t go down.  But in the meantime children are suffering the long term consequences of these miners.  

 http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/10/03/161908669/in-the-wake-of-high-gold-prices-lead-poisons-thousands-of-children