:00:00. > :00:14.at the heart of the next election campaign. Now, Our World. Thousands
:00:14. > :00:25.Indonesia are threatened by a Indonesia are threatened by a
:00:25. > :00:28.poisonous substance. Mercury. These two boys living here in this mining
:00:28. > :00:40.area already shows symptoms and signs of a chronic brain mercury
:00:40. > :00:51.intoxication. Did you know that mercury can be bad for your health?
:00:52. > :00:57.It is not just bad for people. For the first time, the scale of the
:00:57. > :00:58.problem is beginning to emerge. It is shocking. Mercury is even in the
:00:58. > :01:03.food chain. We found food chain. We found the
:01:03. > :01:08.concentration of mercury in the rice is the highest concentration ever
:01:08. > :01:18.analysed in a laboratory. Ever analysed? Yes.What could be the
:01:18. > :01:26.effect of all this mercury on the lives of Indonesians? The outcome
:01:26. > :02:10.will be tremendous. A national disaster, I should say.
:02:10. > :02:15.employed by a large mining company. They work for themselves. This oil
:02:15. > :02:19.and Earth are sucked up and run over and Earth are sucked up and run over
:02:19. > :02:23.mechanical sluices. Gold is much heavier than other rock, so tiny
:02:24. > :02:30.particles are captured on sections of carpet on this loose. Then it is
:02:31. > :02:35.taken for processing. It is filthy work, hard and dangerous but if the
:02:35. > :02:42.miners are lucky, they will be well rewarded. There is nothing pretty
:02:42. > :02:45.about informal goldmining but the attraction for these guys is that
:02:45. > :02:47.potentially, they can earn five times as much as they would if they
:02:47. > :02:54.had a job, for example, in had a job, for example, in
:02:54. > :02:55.agriculture. After the miners have filtered the soil, they bring the
:02:55. > :02:57.Gold which model for fine Gold which model for fine
:02:57. > :03:16.processing. Are you feeling lucky? One g of gold is worth around $45 US
:03:16. > :03:26.and the cash is divided between a and the cash is divided between a
:03:26. > :03:27.team of perhaps eight or ten miners. This is where the liquid metal
:03:27. > :03:32.mercury is added mercury is added to the mix. It is
:03:32. > :03:35.used to separate fragments of gold from the soil. But it's a highly
:03:35. > :03:39.element and environmental activist element and
:03:39. > :03:45.are trying to persuade miners of the are trying to persuade miners
:03:45. > :03:47.dangers to human health. They have a dangers to human health. They have a
:03:47. > :03:54.few bottle tops of mercury in there and they mix it by hand for about
:03:54. > :03:56.ten minutes until all of the gold is absorbed in the mercury. Then they
:03:56. > :04:00.transfer it into the gold pan and mix it again and start eliminating
:04:00. > :04:07.the concentrate. They pour it back in. He is being very careful. You
:04:07. > :04:12.can see the mercury being poured in. They are heavy because they now
:04:12. > :04:12.contain gold. They will take that amalgam and squeeze it through a
:04:12. > :04:18.cross and then they will get a very mercury is reclaimed. They don't
:04:18. > :04:24.and half mercury. The rest of the mercury is reclaimed. They don't
:04:24. > :04:27.waste it. But a little bit of it, the equivalent of the amount that
:04:27. > :04:34.goes into the ball, will go into the lake. Contamination for them at all
:04:34. > :04:38.so for the families that live here. They believe in the lake, they fish
:04:38. > :04:44.in the lake and the lake is well contaminated. Many miners do not
:04:44. > :04:47.appreciate they are dealing with a deadly substance. Did you know that
:04:47. > :04:49.mercury can be quite bad for your health? Nobody talks about that
:04:49. > :05:10.here? The makeshift mines are two Hours
:05:10. > :05:20.Drive from the provincial capital and are served by the nearby
:05:20. > :05:27.goldrush town. The golf shops in the town process and by the fruits of
:05:27. > :05:31.the miners' labour, —— gold shops. It's not just the miners coming into
:05:31. > :05:34.contact with mercury, the whole community can be affected. 3 million
:05:34. > :05:41.Indonesians live from small—scale goldmining. Stephane is a German
:05:41. > :05:45.doctor and an expert on mercury. He doctor and an expert on mercury. He
:05:45. > :05:54.first came to Indonesia ten years ago to study the effects of mercury
:05:54. > :05:58.has come to help us identify people has come to help us identify people
:05:58. > :06:02.displaying the symptoms of displaying the symptoms of
:06:02. > :06:10.poisoning. At the local health centre, he assesses a man who owns a
:06:10. > :06:14.going. He shows typical symptoms of going.
:06:14. > :06:17.cannot co—ordinate his movements chronic mercury
:06:17. > :06:19.cannot co—ordinate his movements well. When he was twisting and
:06:19. > :06:27.turning his arms... Close your eyes. well. When he was twisting and
:06:27. > :06:30.doctor believes that he is. He complained about headaches and then
:06:30. > :06:34.he reported salivation, which is a typical
:06:34. > :06:39.symptom of mercury intoxication. symptom of mercury intoxication. It
:06:39. > :06:46.is very likely that his brain will deteriorating over time, so he will
:06:46. > :06:51.have more and more problems, and they are irreversible, so they will
:06:51. > :06:56.stay with him for as long as he lives. The Doctor takes care and
:06:57. > :06:59.urine samples back to a lab in Munich to measure the mercury
:06:59. > :07:07.exposure and will let us know the results. When we meet from role in
:07:07. > :07:17.his shop, we begin to understand why he is showing symptoms of
:07:17. > :07:23.intoxication. As he smelt the ball flew miners bring him, the mercury
:07:23. > :07:29.evaporates, leaving the gold behind. In the process, Farul inhales the
:07:29. > :07:30.toxic fumes. We let you yesterday at the Doctor 's clinic and he said you
:07:30. > :07:34.some problems. He said that was a some problems. He said that was
:07:34. > :07:37.result of the mercury. I wonder what result of the mercury. I wonder what
:07:37. > :07:55.you think of that, now we find you here back in your shop.
:07:55. > :07:57.Are you worried might become contaminated like
:07:57. > :08:11.But if might become contaminated like
:08:11. > :08:16.mercury, then probably, your health mercury, then probably, your health
:08:17. > :08:50.will get worse, right? some improvements. If he does not,
:08:50. > :09:00.his symptoms are likely to get worse. In the town, there is
:09:00. > :09:09.something else the German doctor is worried about. What is your name?
:09:09. > :09:20.Very good! I am wondering if this child, her cleft palate could be
:09:20. > :09:22.connect it to the high mercury high mercury exposure her mother
:09:22. > :09:26.experienced while she was pregnant. Either remember that in this market
:09:26. > :09:32.where we are just sitting now, there were once many gold shops and they
:09:32. > :09:37.were all smelting amalgams and the mercury exposure was very high. We
:09:37. > :09:41.smelters and they had extremely high smelters and they had extremely high
:09:41. > :09:47.levels of mercury. Maybe the highest levels of mercury ever measured in
:09:47. > :09:50.this world. We go to talk to the girl's mother who still lives and
:09:50. > :09:52.works among the gold shops of the town.
:09:52. > :10:14.works among the gold shops of the town.
:10:14. > :10:19.Has anybody ever suggested to you that it might be the case that it is
:10:19. > :10:54.the mercury that might have affected your little girl
:10:54. > :10:59.The mother said very frankly that she knows about a few other cases of
:10:59. > :11:05.cleft palate in the village. And she knows that in her home village,
:11:05. > :11:09.there were far less cases. It is needed that scientists come back and
:11:09. > :11:14.research this possibility that mercury exposure in small—scale
:11:14. > :11:17.mining areas mining areas is closing
:11:17. > :11:30.malformations in children. If this is true, it will be a high price we
:11:30. > :11:31.have to pay for gold. In Indonesia, contamination with mercury is not
:11:31. > :11:40.only harming people, it's only harming people, it's
:11:40. > :11:43.devastating the environment. The tropical forest around the mining
:11:43. > :11:54.town was home to orangutans and hornbills just a few years ago. Now,
:11:54. > :12:00.this is what is left of the jungle and it will never fully recover.
:12:00. > :12:05.This was once virgin rainforest. Then, when the Asian economic crisis
:12:05. > :12:09.hits and there was a huge goldrush, thousands of gold miners turned up
:12:09. > :12:19.here from across Indonesia. The result was this. All of it
:12:19. > :12:23.contaminated now with mercury. It is actually illegal in Indonesia to use
:12:23. > :12:25.mercury in small—scale goldmining but this is a law that is impossible
:12:25. > :12:35.to enforce. This woman and her team to enforce. This woman and her team
:12:35. > :12:37.size of the UK. It is her job to size of the UK. It
:12:37. > :12:44.limit the impact of mercury. It is limit the impact of mercury. It is
:12:44. > :12:48.not easy to stop them even though we want to Papaya pressure, it is
:12:48. > :13:00.is the most dangerous metal but they is the most dangerous metal but they
:13:00. > :13:05.do not have a say that the problem will arrive after ten years and I
:13:06. > :13:12.have already died of. So they don't care about the next generation. I
:13:12. > :13:20.sciences, you must be upset about it when you look at that area. I feel
:13:20. > :13:25.that it is a part of Central Kalimantan that is lost. When we
:13:25. > :13:29.talk about Central Kalimantan, we think about forests, about clean
:13:29. > :13:37.water. Because we don't have water. Because we don't have
:13:37. > :13:39.industry here. The impact of the metal and the small—scale goldmining
:13:39. > :13:49.is something that we do not expect —— that we did not expect.
:13:49. > :13:59.Indonesians love gold. This is the gold market in Central Kalimantan's
:13:59. > :14:04.capital. With an economy that has taken spectacular tumbles in living
:14:04. > :14:05.memory, people see gold as a safe bet investment, and insurance
:14:05. > :14:16.against future crises. The growing demand for this precious
:14:16. > :14:17.metal takes its toll. Especially when produced informally, with no
:14:17. > :14:32.controls. We leave Central Kalimantan and head
:14:32. > :14:39.experienced public health experts in appointment with one of the most
:14:39. > :14:46.experienced public health experts in Indonesia. Mercury is troublesome.
:14:46. > :14:53.mercury, with this goldmining mercury, with this
:14:53. > :14:57.activity. There is no understanding two no understanding at all. He
:14:57. > :15:01.being used is creating a time bomb. being used is
:15:01. > :15:10.At least 180 tonnes of mercury is At least 180 tonnes of mercury is
:15:10. > :15:18.small—scale goldmining here in Indonesia. It is rampant all over
:15:18. > :15:21.the country. This is people going out to collect gold using dangerous
:15:21. > :15:35.materials, that is mercury. That worries me very much. The danger of
:15:35. > :15:37.electric contamination is that people who became the victims did
:15:37. > :15:42.not know what happened to them. —— not know what happened to them. ——
:15:42. > :15:49.mercury contamination. It is a very long process.
:15:49. > :16:00.These are the consequences of mercury left unchecked.
:16:00. > :16:06.That people of one Japanese are witnessed the worst example of
:16:06. > :16:11.bakery poisoning the world has ever seen. The effect of exposure happens
:16:11. > :16:15.slowly, over three decades. The sources of pollution was a plastics
:16:15. > :16:22.factory. It spilled waste into the bay and contaminated fish, the
:16:22. > :16:25.staple food of the population. Thousands would die of what became
:16:25. > :16:32.known as men at a disease. So could what is happening in
:16:32. > :16:37.Indonesia echoed the terrible Indonesia echoed the terrible
:16:37. > :16:40.experience of people in Japan, 50 years ago? Until we can prove that
:16:40. > :16:46.there is some kind of poisoning, there is some kind of poisoning,
:16:46. > :16:59.meaning a laboratory examination of these people, perhaps later on we
:16:59. > :17:07.of mercury in Indonesia. It is going may say that there is a possibility
:17:07. > :17:11.to build—up. A risk of a novel, or to build—up. A risk of a novel, or
:17:11. > :17:15.new mini matter disease, says the doctor. More research and marks ——
:17:15. > :17:17.much more regulation is needed. doctor. More research and marks ——
:17:17. > :17:22.much more regulation is needed. It is nearly years now since I was last
:17:22. > :17:24.in Indonesia and since then, the economic boom has transformed the
:17:24. > :17:30.lives of many. People have got smart lives of many. People have got smart
:17:30. > :17:38.streets are jammed with new and expensive cars. In contrast to
:17:38. > :17:47.what we have found is that the trading and use of mercury is almost
:17:47. > :17:51.completely unregulated. And it is not just Kalimantan. Unlicensed goal
:17:52. > :18:03.—— goldmining is happening across the archipelago.
:18:03. > :18:10.With its beaches and luxury hotels, Lombok is famous as a tropical
:18:10. > :18:15.tourist destination. We have come to the island because it as well is in
:18:15. > :18:17.the grip of gold fever. We have had their children are working in the
:18:17. > :18:22.industry and being dangerously exposed to mercury. This village has
:18:22. > :18:29.joined the It is very different from
:18:29. > :18:38.Kalimantan. In Lombok, the gold Kalimantan. In Lombok, the gold is
:18:38. > :18:44.found in solid rock. Breaking it down is a slow, labourious process.
:18:44. > :18:51.We are in this village and almost the entire community here is devoted
:18:51. > :18:52.to the business of gold. They used the whole or amalgamation process
:18:52. > :18:56.which means that the rocks come from which means that the rocks come from
:18:56. > :19:04.the mountains, are put into drums and once crushed to a fine pulp, the
:19:04. > :19:07.villagers have recently abandoned of the making of gold. Many
:19:07. > :19:10.villagers have recently abandoned traditional occupations of farming
:19:10. > :19:17.and fishing so that mercury is everywhere. This doctor knows the
:19:17. > :19:22.village well. She village well. She is a soil
:19:22. > :19:28.scientist at the University of the matter ran, the capital of Lombok
:19:28. > :19:35.and has done groundbreaking research on the impact of mercury in food. We
:19:36. > :19:37.do tests now. Let your arms like this. First, she
:19:37. > :19:47.children. Fast, fast!These two are to examine some of
:19:47. > :19:52.ten and 12. They collect used in ten and 12. They collect used in
:19:52. > :19:54.those —— user mercury from a waste byproduct. Of these two boys, living
:19:54. > :20:02.in this area and working with mercury show symptoms and signs of
:20:02. > :20:06.chronic mercury intoxication. They have problems co—ordinating their
:20:06. > :20:12.movements properly. They have a slight tremor. This is what we call
:20:12. > :20:13.a co—ordination problem. This can be related to higher mercury exposure
:20:13. > :20:27.as well. Faster, faster! Mercury is, ——
:20:27. > :20:37.to your cerebellum. The control of to your cerebellum. The control of
:20:37. > :20:42.the movement is already did —— impaired in these young boys.
:20:42. > :20:47.I am just cutting some hair from this little boy. E collect more
:20:47. > :20:55.samples for the allowed back in samples for the allowed back in the
:20:55. > :21:01.collect more samples. Gold collect more samples. Gold
:21:01. > :21:06.production has become the economic mainstay of this village. It has
:21:06. > :21:11.brought development, new buildings, motorbikes, and some people are
:21:11. > :21:15.doing very well from the gold rush. For most, the potential long—term
:21:15. > :21:18.impact on health is clearly not a impact on health is clearly not a
:21:18. > :21:27.cause for concern, at least for the moment.
:21:27. > :21:37.Just a few kilometres from the village, a sea of rice paddy fields.
:21:37. > :21:41.On the Mac we took a sample in 2011 of the rice field in this area. Ryde
:21:41. > :21:42.this is where this doctor has research contamination of the soil
:21:42. > :21:52.be consumed. By the people here. As and
:21:52. > :22:03.be consumed. By the people here. As you can see here, they are eating
:22:04. > :22:06.the rice from the land. Close to the will rice dumps, she
:22:06. > :22:10.levels of electric. We found that the concentration of mercury in the
:22:10. > :22:16.rice is the highest concentration ever analysed in the lab. That has
:22:16. > :22:20.ever been analysed? In the world? I don't know about the world but this
:22:20. > :22:25.is the highest we have ever seen. We send the samples to the only lab in
:22:25. > :22:32.the world. How did you feel about that? I was shocked about this. This
:22:32. > :22:35.is a serious problem for the area. Across Asia, where you have other
:22:35. > :22:42.goldmining? The amount? goldmining? The amount? The
:22:42. > :22:50.Philippines? China? —— the amount? The consequences could be huge. ——
:22:50. > :22:55.Vietnam? I am surprised because nobody in Lombok is talking about
:22:55. > :23:04.this. This is a huge step, to find this kind of information. Skyhigh
:23:04. > :23:06.levels of mercury in the food chain. If her results were replicated
:23:06. > :23:08.across Indonesia's goldmining If her results were replicated
:23:08. > :23:08.across Indonesia's goldmining regions, the prospects could be
:23:08. > :23:17.terrifying. And the doctor who took care and
:23:17. > :23:22.year and samples has the analysis back. The results are shocking. Are
:23:22. > :23:25.you ready? One, two, three, go! The you ready? One, two, three, go! The
:23:25. > :23:30.gold shop owner told the doctor wonder. You or I may have one or two
:23:30. > :23:37.he has headaches and feels weak. wonder. You or I may have one or two
:23:37. > :23:41.His southpaw showed a level of His southpaw showed a level of
:23:41. > :23:55.nearly 700 micrograms. —— your own. The boys in Lombok both recorded
:23:55. > :23:59.elevated levels of mercury as well. One result was
:23:59. > :24:02.micrograms per litre is worrying. He micrograms per litre
:24:02. > :24:14.For the has only worked for two years with
:24:14. > :24:19.small—scale goldmining presents a huge challenge. One minister told me
:24:19. > :24:26.that they are working to tighten controls on the illegal import of
:24:26. > :24:31.mercury. They have agreed to sign up next month to the UN in a manner ——
:24:31. > :24:39.the UN's nematic invention, which aims to regular mercury in all
:24:39. > :24:45.industries. Small—scale goldmining is not just a problem for Indonesia.
:24:45. > :24:52.Millions of miners are hard at work in 17, mostly poor, nations around
:24:52. > :24:57.the world. Many of them use mercury. Indonesia is one of the largest
:24:57. > :25:06.informal producers of gold and the failure to take action rapidly could
:25:06. > :25:10.have raised consequences. —— grave. The outcome will be very
:25:10. > :25:11.tremendous. A national disaster, The outcome will be very
:25:11. > :25:24.should say. Once you get electric poisoning,
:25:24. > :25:25.that is it. Mercury contamination or Mercury poisoning is a 1—way
:25:25. > :25:29.ticket.