Here is a post about Nigeria and how the lead poisoning and death toll has doubled since last year. Atleast 400 children have died from lead poisoing this year. The poisoning is called by illegal gold mining in areas contaminated with lead. To extract gold, deadly amounts of lead were released and soil containing lead deposits was dumped in water sources and in places where children played. Locals believe that at least 18,000 people have been affected. Unfortunately, many deaths go unreported and this makes the statistics lower than what they actually are. It seems that something will have to be done very soon about the illegal gold mining, if not, the death toll due to lead poison will do nothing but increase.
Wow! And we just have to worry about flaky old paint here. Who's doing the illegal gold mining, and are there any plans to combat the problem? Can you add a link to your source?
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