By Beatrice Jeschek

More than two hundred children have been exposed to lead dust and died of poisoning in northern Nigeria. They had worked as child laborers in gold mines.

The UN office for the Organization of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) yesterday reported about the deaths of several hundred people since the beginning of this year in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara. More than 300 people have died from lead poisoning, two-thirds of them children.

“These poisonings are due to traditional gold-prospecting methods”, said Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA spokeswoman in Geneva. A further 18.000 individuals may be affected, she added.

In Nigeria, small amounts of gold are extracted from lead-rich ores. In order to extract the gold, the lead is crushed and dried. Consequentially, the resulting dust contains deadly amounts of lead, which contaminates tools, earth and water the workers use.

The Nigerian authorities have stopped the work in illegal gold mines and started the evacuation of some of the contaminated areas.

A five-member team of environmental emergency specialists arrived on Monday in Abuja, the capital.

According to the UN News Center, the team will spend several weeks taking samples of soil and drinking water and analyzing them. One of their tasks will also be to devise recommendations on how to clean up pollution from lead, mercury and copper.

This article was first published 22/09/2010 on maltastar.com.