Summary of Health and Safety Issues for Burmese Women

In 1989, the mining industry began to change rapidly. Cease-fire agreements with armed opposition groups also allowed formal and informal companies to expand their logging and mining operations, particularly in remote border regions. Since then, the number of mining companies has expanded tremendously. These new arrangements have helped transform how mining activities are funded as well as what kinds of technologies are available for extraction and for processing. Regardless of the technologies used, all forms of mining are risky and produce toxic materials that pose considerable threats to the health of the environment and to people, especially women.

Again, Burma is not unusual in this regard. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that non-fatal accident rates in artisanal mines globally are six to seven times higher than in large-scale, capital-intensive industrial operations with formal work practices, protective gear, and safety training.³⁰ Since mining companies, especially artisanal ones, fail to provide adequate medical services near mine sites, serious but treatable injuries often result in unnecessary deaths. This is especially true where underground mines are common, e.g. Bolivia and China. In such regions, gas poisoning, gas explosions, cave-ins, and flooding are tragically common and claim thousands of lives each year. In the vast majority of cases, men are killed, leaving women to raise families on their own, often with no formal assistance from the mining companies.

Additionally, gold mines rely heavily upon mercury and cyanide, while copper mines typically use sulfur, hydrochloric acid, and other toxic chemicals. Repeated exposure to toxic chemicals—especially common at artisanal mines—also dramatically increases the risk of injury and illness, both on site and, due to their cumulative impacts, years later. Such chemicals, for example, increase the statistical likelihood that subsequent children will have physical and/or mental abnormalities. Chemical spills and intentional dumping, again all too common in the mining industry, further pollute the environment, releasing toxins that cause a range of problems. The section below highlights some of the key negative impacts.

Mercury

Gold mining always produces mercury, which is widely recognized as being extremely toxic. Trace amounts of organic mercury, e.g. methylmercury, are released when the ore is exposed. This form of mercury is most commonly found in the air around a mining site, the water used as part of the mining process, and in tailings (ground ore or old waste rock). Methylmercury also tends to bio-accumulate. In other words, it tends to increase in concentration and toxicity as it moves upward through the food chain. Communities that rely heavily upon fish, for example, may be at risk for methylmercury poisoning, which can cause severe and irreversible neurological damage. For a variety of biological reasons, women and children are particularly vulnerable.³¹

Mercury vapor is also produced through an extractive process called “amalgam decomposition.” Small amounts of mercury are added to tailings or ore and then the mixture is “cooked” over a fire or on a kitchen stove. Estimates are that two to five grams of mercury are released for every gram of gold that is recovered. Respiratory problems and dizziness are common side effects. Chronic, long-term exposure produces muscular tremors and a range of pyscho-pathological symptoms, e.g. depression and exaggerated emotional responses, which are mistaken for other ailments. Acute exposure can lead to kidney failure, vomiting, and death.³²

Additionally, the extraction of gold accelerates “acid mine drainage” (AMD), which the industry officials as well as environmentalists agree is the most serious and dangerous by-product of mining. AMD is formed when minerals containing sulfide meet water with a high acidic content. The mixture slowly seeps out of tailings, overburden (piles of displaced surface rock and soils), and ore waiting to be processed. While special ponds, lined and covered with industrial-grade plastics, are intended to contain AMD, leaks and spills are inevitable. If not treated quickly, AMD and the heavy metals that often accompany it, will poison groundwater and, in some cases, entire watersheds—creating “deadzones” where little or nothing can survive. Since women are in many cultures responsible for gathering water, tending crops and animals, and so on, their exposure to AMD is often much higher than that of men.

Cyanide

Different kinds of cyanide compounds are commonly used to extract very small particles of gold. The most popular technique is called “cyanide-leaching,” which has replaced the “mercury amalgamation” process in many large-scale mines around the world. The process entails spraying a sodium cyanide solution over tailings. A chemical reaction causes the gold particles to form a water-soluble compound with the cyanide called “pregnant solution.” Activated carbon is then used to extract the gold from the solution. While the technique is extremely efficient, the resulting waste is highly toxic. To prevent contamination, the polluted water is usually placed in special holding ponds that are lined and covered to prevent contamination. Leaks, however, are common and the ponds collapse due to inclement weather or poor construction. While cyanide breaks down rapidly when exposed to sunlight, spills of even trace amounts can have dramatic effects. Short-term acute exposure (110 parts/million) can cause coma and/or death in less than an hour. Much lower levels can temporarily kill fish and other animals in a river where a spill occurs.³³

As is often the case elsewhere, poverty drives people to engage in activities that are detrimental to their health. In Burma, Dohtar offers an excellent example. Dohtar is a process in which small amounts of copper are extracted from materials previously discarded by mining companies as waste. It is a less technologically sophisticated version of the copper solvent extraction and electrowinning pilot plant built by Ivanhoe in Monywa and, due to the chemicals involved, quite dangerous. The waste is first placed in a small pool of water. Sulfur is added. Then, the mixture is boiled. Next, milk cans made of tin are added, which causes a chemical reaction to occur. The resulting acid released slowly dissolves the milk cans. The process takes approximately ten days and, when complete, leaves copper ore in a highly toxic pool of water. The ore is removed by hand, often without any safety precautions, and then sold to Chinese businessmen and companies.³⁴ Women frequently participate in the process to earn extra money for their families, a gesture that unwittingly places their own health and their family’s wellbeing at greater risk.