20111029
Press TV
Illegal gold mining in several northern Nigerian villages has exposed at least 2,000 children to lead, making them suffer from poisoning caused by the chemical element, a Nigerian official says.

"There are 2,000 children suffering from lead poisoning in eight lead-contaminated villages yet to be remediated…these children are exposed to more danger by their constant exposure to lead and delay in treatment," said Nasiru Tsafe, deputy coordinator of the rapid response team of the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara.

Tsafe added that the children are under five years old and have shown signs of lead levels in their blood far exceeding international standards due to exposure to lead-rich gold ore, AFP reported on Friday.

The children live in villages in the Zamfara state, where 400 children have already died from the contamination caused by illegal gold mining.

"The immediate thing to be done is remediation, because there is no point treating a lead-poisoned child who goes back to a contaminated environment where he is exposed to the same contamination," he explained.

Several warnings have been issued since lethal levels of lead poisoning were reported in 2010 in the villages, where processing ore for gold extraction has been dispersing lead in the area.

Jane Cohen, a researcher with the Human Rights Watch who visited the area recently, noted that the situation is worse than anticipated with "a large number of children exposed to high lead contamination well above the WHO [World Health Organization] accepted limit.”

"Bagega [village] provides the worst challenge because it is more than the size of all the other seven villages combined and all the over 1,500 children in the village suffer from lead poisoning," Cohen stated.