Hundreds Die of Lead Poisoning in Nigeria

[cory777]

Source: Time/Ecocentric

These days, environmentalism has become synonymous with the fight against climate change. But good green campaigners know that more immediate environmental challenges still exist.

That reality hit home yesterday when the United Nations said it will send an emergency team to Nigeria, after 200 children died in an outbreak of lead poisoning related to gold mining in the northern state of Zamfara.

More than 18,000 people have thus far been affected in seven villages. As The Guardian reports, "In all cases, villagers had been grinding ore by hand to search for gold when they unwittingly freed lead particles also contained in the rock." Local water supplies and soil in villages have become contaminated.

The death toll and figure of those affected will likely rise. Lead poisoning is insidious: it can have debilitating long-term effects, such as decreased bone and muscle growth, poor muscle coordination, damage to the nervous system, kidneys, and hearing and speech and language problems. Children suffer more because their size makes them more vulnerable to the effects.



Read more: http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2010/09/23/hundreds-die-of-lead-poisoning-in-nigeria/

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[Oldtimeralso]

1. I Had a Friend That Died of Lead Poisoning

Yeah .38 caliber
:spray: :crazy: :spray:

[Mnemosyne]

2. Yep, foreign children dying is just hysterically funny. n/t

[truthisfreedom]

3. 200 children. That would have been 1/4th of my elementary school.

RIP 200 children.

[HoraceX]

4. Tip of the iceburg

This was reported on the BBC yesterday. The researcher they interviewed said that the lead levels were so high that they were beyond what the researcher's equipment was capable of measuring.

Approximately 200 have died, but the long term implications are staggering. The researcher implied that you're going to have thousands of kids with severe cognitive disabilities throughout the region.

I can't imagine the suffering a developmentally disabled child in Nigeria will endure.