Nigeria - lead poisoning kills 100 children in north

The article Nigeria - lead poisoning kills 100 children in north came from BBC News and it talks about the fact that many children in Nigeria have recently died of lead poisoning, especially in the state of Zamfara. According to the article, "The number has been rising since March, when residents started digging illegally for gold in areas with high concentrations of lead." The article also reports that of the 355 total number of cases of lead poisoning, 163 have been fatal. Since this has become such a problem, they have set up camps in order to treat the people who have been poisoned. Health officials believe that "locals became sick after lead removed during the process of refining gold ore contaminated local water systems."

I found this article very interesting, but also very sad. Many of the villagers believed that the children were all dying from Malaria and did not realize that it was lead poisoning. I think that if the people knew about the high concentration of lead, they would not be illegally mining for gold. It is unfortunate that they have such an important natural resource that is actually harming the people of Nigeria rather than helping them.

This article ties in with what we have been talking about in class because we have had a few discussions regarding natural resources. We have talked about how other countries take advantage of Africa's resources and Africa never really benefits from having such great resources. We also discussed the water pollution Africa faces and how much of a negative impact this has on the health of the people.

Photo: Map of Nigeria, BBC News.