Sammy Gyamfi, Gold is precious, Minamata disease is pernicious

I could hardly believe my ears upon listening to a clip, in which the alleged protagonist, the chief executive of the Gold Board, Sammy Gyamfi, unblushingly and somewhat preposterously urging illegal miners to continue with their unscrupulous activities and wait to be licensed by the authorities at a later date(emphasis mine).

Well, let me begin by drawing on biblical Mark’s philosophical words: ‘For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole earth and forfeits his soul’(Mark8:36). .

If you may remember, prior to the 2024 general elections, Sammy Gyamfi and his minions, including the University Teachers Association of Ghana, ventilated their arousing disgust and threatened to go on strike over the Akufo-Addo administration’s supposed lackadaisical approach in combating the galamsey menace.

So, the all-important question every concerned Ghanaian should be asking then is: have Sammy Gyamfi and cohort, who were extremely aggrieved and vociferous over the galamsey menace prior to the 2024 general elections ceased their fury in condemnation?

Perhaps, Sammy Gyamfi and cohort are enjoying the trappings of power and I guess have no time to emit their fury in condemnation over the galamsey menace.

Much as I do not want to accept the widely held notion that politics is a dirty game, it would not be farfetched to suggest that the political terrain is full of manipulating geezers.

Of course, political manipulators are not limited to Africa. It is a global phenomenon, as a matter of fact.

However, in my humble view, it is our part of the world (Africa), where political gimmicks and insobrieties are so prevalent.

I presume, this is so because we have greater number of unlettered folks, many of whom cannot choose between tricksters and morally upright politicians.

My dear reader, let me crave your indulgence just a moment longer and pose: which independent country on this planet (Earth) would its politicians, regulators, and law enforcement bodies sit idly while some obstreperous Ghanaians and their criminally-minded foreign counterparts disgustingly steal its natural resources and destroy the environment in the process?

The exposure to noxious mercury in Ghana as a result of illegal mining activities remains a serious health problem and we cannot continue to live in a denial.

Mephitic mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining is extremely harmful and its health effects on society are significantly worrying(WHO,2017).

Approximately 15% of the world's gold is produced by artisanal and small-scale miners, many of whom use mercury and other toxic substances to extract the minerals from rivers and underneath the ground (BBC, 2013).

Unfortunately, unlike some other West African countries, Ghana allows mercury use in mining.

Mercury is freely available in shops and can be bought with a canister, bottle, or as a ball wrapped in a plastic cling film. Much of it has been allegedly brought in by Chinese miners.

Ghana has an estimated one million small-scale gold miners (Galamseyers), and they commonly use mercury to process gold.

They mix the mercury with the ore to create a gold-mercury amalgam, and then burn the mercury off so the raw gold remains.

The problems stemming from mercury use don’t stop at exposure from inhalation. Once used for gold processing, mercury-contaminated water is often dumped on the ground, polluting Ghana’s rivers and lakes, and poisoning its fish and those who eat them(HRW, 2014).

A typical example of toxic mercury contamination impacting negatively on public health happened in Minamata, Japan, between 1932 and 1968, where a factory producing acetic acid discharged waste liquid into Minamata Bay.

The discharge included high concentrations of methylmercury. The bay was rich in fish and shellfish, providing the main livelihood for local residents and fishermen from other areas.

Somehow, many years passed without no one realising that the fish were contaminated with mercury, and that it was causing a strange disease in the local community and in other districts.

At least 50 000 people were affected to some extent and more than 2000 cases of Minamata disease were identified.

Unfortunately, Minamata disease escalated in the 1950s, with severe cases of brain damage, paralysis, incoherent speech and delirium (WHO, 2017).

Minamata disease, also known as Chisso-Minamata disease, is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect foetuses (See: www.bu.edu/sustainability/minamata-disease).

As a bio-accumulative and toxic pollutant, when released into the atmosphere, mercury dissolves in water laid sediments and it can be consumed by fish and then ended up in the food chain of humans (Merem, Wesley, Isokpehi et al. 2016).

In that sense, toxic mercury pollution poses an enormous public health hazard and environmental risk(Merem, Wesley, Isokpehi et al. 2016).

Exposure to mercury
All humans are exposed to some level of mercury. Most people are exposed to low levels of mercury, often through chronic exposure (continuous or intermittent long term contact).

However, some people are exposed to high levels of mercury, including acute exposure (exposure occurring over a short period of time, often less than a day). An example of acute exposure would be mercury exposure due to an industrial accident.

Exposure in the womb can result from a mother's consumption of fish and shellfish. It can adversely affect a baby's growing brain and nervous system.

The primary health effect of methylmercury is impaired neurological development. Therefore, cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills may be affected in children who were exposed to methylmercury as foetuses.

The second group is people who are regularly exposed (chronic exposure) to high levels of mercury (such as populations that rely on subsistence fishing or people who are occupationally exposed).

Among selected subsistence fishing populations, between 1.5/1000 and 17/1000 children showed cognitive impairment (mild mental retardation) caused by the consumption of fish containing mercury. These included populations in Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia and Greenland(Source: WHO, 2017).

We should not and cannot fail our children and our children’s children, so let’s work in valence and end the menace of illegal mining!

K. Badu, UK.
[email protected]