Dulce P. Estrella-Gust (22)
An important reason for abolishing child labour in hazardous work is the impact of hazards on the health, growth and development of child workers. Mining ranks first on the list of the recently updated guideline of hazardous occupations in the Philippines, where 3.7 million of 22.3 million children between 5 and 17 years of age have been identified as working children. More than 2 million children are said to be working in a hazardous environment (23). The extent of children working in small-scale mines is not known, but observed hazards range from working in make-shift tunnels to exposure to toxic chemicals (24).
The Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands, is a mineral-rich country. It is a significant producer of copper, gold, chromite and nickel. Small-scale mining proliferates in half of the country's 80 provinces, involving between 250,000 and 500,000 people (25).
Sibutad municipality
Sibutad municipality is located in the southern part of the Philippines, in the province of Zamboanga del Norte. Mineral deposits in this province include chromite, gold, bentonite, marble, limestone, quartz, pebbles and gravel.
Libay in Sibutad was selected as the study site because of intensive small-scale mining activity and the prevalence of child labour as reported in a study by Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in 1995. This study provides a basis for the assessment of changes in the socio-demographic and health profile of the population (26).
Small scale mining is the prime source of livelihood at Sibutad. For many it is a family activity where both children and parents are engaged in different stages of extracting and processing gold. Primitive and unsafe mining methods, inadequate equipment, and daring and unsafe practices predominate.
Mining is currently carried out in six tunnels; a far cry from the period 1986 to 1989 when over mining took place in over100 tunnels. Local residents put the blame for the decline on Philex Mines, a large mining company which bought much land and left little scope for the small-scale miners.
Small-scale mining is done by digging tunnels that follow the gold vein. Ten per cent of the gold produced is given by the tunnel operator to the land owner.
In a good week, operators of individual tunnels can extract 2 gm of processed gold per sack of ore. One gram of gold is sold for PHP 290 ($7.25 in 1998). Sometimes it would only take two hours to extract ore containing 6 gm of gold. Abanteros (underground miners) can earn about PHP 3,000 ($75) per month.
There are ten tunnel operators in the community and about 15 abanteros in each tunnel. "Children are not allowed underground -- too difficult." Once the ore reaches the surface, however, children carry it in sacks on their backs or on a cartilla.
Infrastructure
There is only one hospital in Sibutad, 7 km from the mining community. It provides basic health services. The only health personnel the community sees is a midwife. A tunnel operator said that the hospital was not very helpful: "They just give you mercurochrome." There is an elementary school in the community and a secondary school about 6 km away.
The study in 1995 identified 114 child labourers, panners and stone pounders in the two communities, seven females and 107 males. One-third were age 7 to 12 years and two-thirds 13-18. Most (74) were labourers, plus 26 gold panners and flushers, Seven worked inside the tunnels and seven were stone pounders. Half of the children went to school.
The miners work as a team. Those who work inside the tunnel -- adult workers -- are the timbermen, abanteros and atraseros. A team of abanteros dig a tunnel about 2 m in diameter following vertically or horizontally the richest parts of the vein, loading the mined soil and ore into sacks. The timbermen carry lumber into the tunnel following, the path of the abantero and construct the supporting timber frames inside the tunnel along to prevent cave-ins. The atraseros carry 25-30 kg sacks of soil/ore to the tunnel entrance. The sacks are then carried 500 m or more to the milling sites located near the backyards of the homes of the workers. This work is often done by children.
At the milling site the ore is placed in ball mills and water and imyang leaves are added to remove manganese. The ball mills are then run mechanically for at least four hours to crush the ore completely. Mercury is added to form amalgams of varying consistency.
The content of the ball mill is poured into tailing pans and allowed to settle until the amalgam floats near the surface when it is removed and placed in sieving pans to remove other impurities. The gold can then be separated by burning off the mercury.
Figure 1. The mining and processing process
A survey was carried out by means of structured interviews, questionnaire, focus group discussions and interviews. One site was inspected but it was impossible to go underground since the team arrived at the entrance few minutes after blasting by the nearby mining company.
Fourteen children working in small mines in the Municipality of Sibutad, Zamboanga del Norte were examined on August 14, 1998. Except for two full-time workers, all were studying and interviews were carried out on school premises with the assistance of the school principal. All were boys, with a mean age of 14 years (figure 2).
Most of the children were at elementary school or had just finished. One child was in high school and another had finished secondary education. Twelve of the child workers were combining study and work. This was done by going to work on weekdays, after school in the afternoon, on weekends or both (for 8 out of 12).
Nine of the 14 child miners were migrants to the municipality of Sibutad. Five of the workers' families came from Negros province, two from Ozamis and two had migrated from adjacent municipalities of Zamboanga province.
All the children lived in their own homes which were located about 1 km from the small-scale mining operations. They took 30-45 minutes to walk to their work places.
Nine of the respondents brought food from home and ate at their workplaces. Food consisted of bread or rice, plus fish, vegetables, meat, or pasta. Drinking water for the mining community was provided in water tanks by the municipality and was considered fairly safe.
The 14 children were involved in the following activities: carrying minerals/ rock, processing of minerals, underground work and stone pounding. Other children carried water for sale to adult workers in the mines. Some children did a combination of work (figure 3). The average load carried by working children was about 28 kg of minerals/rock or 20 litres of water.
Except for the processing of minerals, the children considered all other mine-related activities as very heavy work. Although the child workers did basically the same type of work as adults, most believed their work was different because they usually carried lighter loads than the adults.
The children had been working for an average of 4 years for an average of three hours a day during the week and 4 hours a day at the weekend. Most would work both on weekdays and weekends. All of them would work for five days on weekdays and most of them (12 out of 14) worked throughout the year.
Not one of the children was wage-employed or had an employer. They either worked on their own (10 out of 14) or assisted their parents (4 out of 14). Hence, the payment they received came from the owner(s) of land they were mining (3 out of 14), the buyers of gold (6 out of 14) or the adult workers who bought the water they had carried to the mining sites.
Ten of the 14 children were paid at piece rates (an average of PHP 8 ($0.20)) for carrying heavy sacks of rocks or pails of water. Five child miners were paid about PHP 160 ($4) on a weekly basis. In a good week, working children could earn PHP 200-2,000 ($5-50).
About 80% of the child miners' earnings went to their parents as a contribution to family income. Figure 4 shows how children's earnings were spent.
A major hazard arose from carrying heavy loads of rocks and water. Children involved in the processing of minerals were exposed to mercury.
Only three of the 14 child miners used tools in their work. Two used picks and hammer, while one used a shovel. Only one reported using gloves as protection.
Child workers generally belonged to large families with an average of six siblings. 13 of the child workers had an average of two siblings working in mining. Four of the child workers were the second oldest child in their families and another four were the third oldest child in the family. All the child workers lived at home with their parents. Most of the children had taken their own decision to work, while a few (5) had been influenced by their parents or brothers. Figure 5 shows the reasons given for working.
All 14 children had living fathers, only nine of whom were gainfully employed. Four of the fathers had mine-related jobs, while others worked as fishermen, carpenters and repairmen. Two of the children did not have living mothers. Of the ten living mothers, only one worked outside as a farmer. Other mothers interviewed in focus group discussions indicated that they did some mining- related work in addition to their housework.
Two of the14 children did not go to school anymore. They would, however, like to go back to school if given a chance -- to learn in order to have a better future.
Only one of the 14 child miners smoked and one regularly drank alcoholic beverages (beer and tuba -- fermented coconut sap).
Among the illnesses the children had suffered in the past, respiratory diseases were most common (11 of the children), followed by musculo-skeletal and gastro-intestinal disorders and skin diseases.
Over the past six months, the children had suffered from subjective symptoms and conditions pertaining to their joints and muscles. Muscle pain as well as joint and muscle stiffness had been felt by 21% of the children, followed by back pain and skin lesions (figure 6).
Two of the child mineworkers have had periods of cough and phlegm and two had experienced breathlessness. On physical examination, almost all the child miners had findings related to neck, eye, ear, nose, throat and skin. Skin abnormalities were noted in 13 children, including whitish flat lesions on the back; dry whitish flat circumscribed lesions on the face of two children; dry skin in five children; dry skin with lesion in one child; dry skin with mosquito bites on left arm and hypopigmented area over the body of one child; dry whitish skin on arms and neck (pruritic); dry with positive miliaria on the back and presence of healing lesions on the arm and miliaria on the trunk and back of one child. The neck lymph glands of all children were enlarged.
Other abnormalities (ten children) included perforated tympanic membranes in both ears of two children; presence of impacted cerumen in both ears of two children; tonsillo pharyngeal congestion of left tonsil in one child; impacted cerumen in right ear in three children; presence of slight pale palpular conjunctiva in one child; presence of enlarged tonsils on both sides in two children and presence of reddish conjunctiva, impacted cerumen in left ear in one child. One child had upper extremity muscular aches, three had symptoms of tinea and one was noticeably thin. Among the 14 miners, eight had a restricted lung function; six had normal spirometry test results.
Laboratory tests included blood chemistry I and II, haematology, lead in blood, mercury in urine and mercury in blood. Significant findings were:
Liver function tests showed abnormalities among five persons.
Blood chemistry II SGOT (ref.: 7-48 U/l) 4 elevated
SGPT (ref.: 0-57 U/l) 1 elevated
CBC/Hematology Erythrocyte, numc. 1 elevated; 1 below normal
Leucocyte 1 elevated; 2 below normal
Lymphocyte 1 elevated
Urinalysis Sugar 1 trace
Protein 1 trace
The levels of lead and mercury in blood and mercury in urine were within the normal limits among all children, as were the results of mental and neurological status examinations.
Sixteen parents were interviewed -- 12 mothers and four fathers. All mothers were involved in mining, most working in the ball-mill and in the processing of gold from mercury. Nine fathers were working as abantero/atrasero; the rest did carpenty, farming and driving.
Initially the parents pretended that their children were no longer working in the mines. In the course of the discussions, however, it became clear that children still participated actively, with about 23 children involved in one type of work or another. The youngest working child was 8 years old; the average age was 10 years. Seven parents had one working child, six had two and three had three children at work.
Most of the children were involved in activities outside the mine, carrying sacks of rocks weighing about 28 kg from the entrance of the tunnel to the ball-milling site 400-600 m away. The children were sometimes provided with a cartilla on which to put the sacks. The children also carried water. Three children present in the discussion said they regularly worked underground. The parents claimed that seven children worked as abanteros and eight carried ore and participated in the milling and gold/mercury separation process.
Most parents were aware of the side-effects and hazards of mining, but they saw no alternative to this type of work because they needed a supplement to the family income, and there were no other work opportunities for children. There had been accidents in 1989-94, the peak period of mining activity. They described the range of diseases of miners as: skin swelling, itchiness, paleness, diarrhea and hepatitis (particularly in 1988-90).
Abanteros (underground workers) usually stayed underground overnight, sometimes for up to 36 hours at a time. In order to prevent accidents they used anting-anting (charms). However, after a series of accidents due to cave-ins the miners learned how to improve the timber reinforcement of the tunnels.
Gregorio Andag, the owner of a tunnel, was visited at the extraction site. The land belongs to Mr. Adaza, a City councillor, who received 10% of the turnover. When asked about his permit to operate, Mr Andag said : "Maybe from the Department of Environment and National Resources (DENR)." Small-scale mines were run as a cooperative of which there were 100 plus in North Sibutad and 400 plus in the whole Barangay province. As mentioned above, Andag could extract 2 gm of processed gold from 45 kg of gold ore from his tunnel. Only six tunnels were still operating, compared with over 100 in the boom years.
Except for a visit from a health worker, the community had not received any health support, direct health services, nor information materials.
Total dust concentration refers to the amount of suspended particles in the workplace, while respirable dust concentration refers to particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs. Measurements of dust showed that threshold limit values (TLV) for both respirable and total dust concentration of 5.0 mg/m3 were exceeded at the tunnel entrance and at the ball-mills (table 2).
Table 2. Dust concentrations
| Area |
Sampling time |
Dust concentration (mgm/m3) |
|
| Respirable |
Total |
||
| Tunnel entrance |
2.40-3.05 pm |
5.1 |
37.1 |
| Ball-mill |
3.35-3.50 pm |
18.7 |
31.6 |
| Threshold limit value |
5.0 |
10.0 |
|
Lead samples in air were collected, both at the tunnel entrance and at the ball-mills. The TLV (0.15 mg/m3 was exceeded at both sites by about four times (0.50 mg/m3 at the tunnel entrance and 0.66 mg/m3 at the ball-mills).
Ambient mercury levels at the two locations also exceeded the TLV of the Occupational Safety and Health Standards (0.05 mg/m3) and more so that of the stricter American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (0.01 mg/m3).
The study showed there were serious health risks from dust in mining, quarrying, tunnelling and stone crushing. The effects vary depending on the nature of the dust particles, particularly the silica content, and the size.
The high level of mercury found at the tunnel entrance leads to the conclusion that either mercury is already present in the ore, or that it is transported inadvertently between the amalgamation site and the mine. Workers are exposed to mercury during milling, amalgamation and subsequent separation, particularly when they handle mercury and amalgams with their bare hands. Ball-mills should be located away from households to limit exposure of family members.
Periodic medical examinations should be undertaken with the aim of early detection of excessive exposure to mercury and to determine early signs of poisoning. Urine analyses should be carried out regularly, with attention being paid to individual levels of mercury contamination and to trends in the population. The maximum allowable concentration of mercury in urine should be 50 g/l. In blood, it should not exceed 3.0 g/100 ml.
Acute poisoning due to mercury vapour inhalation might occur in poorly ventilated areas in burning off mercury from the amalgam. The insidious nature of chronic mercury poisoning can make its early detection difficult. [N.B. Chapter 2 of ILO: Social and labour issues in small-scale mines (Geneva, 1999), and the references thereto, address aspects of the health effects of mercury and measures that are being taken to limit its use in small-scale mining. Ed.]
The high levels of lead that were found near the mine and at the ball-mills mean that precautions should be taken to prevent its ingestion or absorption.
The poor work environment adds to the already heavy load that children bear -- the high prevalence of respiratory and gastro-intestinal illnesses, frequent muscle and joint pain, enlarged lymph glands, restrictive lung function and elevated liver function test results -- all point to their vulnerability to a range of illnesses, including TB.
Most of the foregoing statements dealing with the health aspects of working children provide only general indications, as they are based largely on qualitative data. Special attention should be given to improved data collection so that information can be collected, analysed and disseminated effectively.
Although accidents and illnesses have been frequent among child workers, there is no systematic method of reporting. Since children are not usually covered by existing health services, communities have looked to primary care and the assistance of NGOs in linking children to basic health services.
Children should not be involved in any mining-related activities. Mining heads the list of work and activities forbidden for persons under 18 years of age by the Philippines Labor Code.
The following recommendations are aimed at improving the working conditions of adult mineworkers:
Source Link: http://www.oit.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/papers/childmin/137e3.htm