Word: limbong
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...addition, the entrance to the mining area is staffed by a couple of heavily beribboned paratroopers in full uniform. Tamban only smiles again and doesn't reply when asked about the paratroopers. Others are less shy. "The security at Talawaan was set up by the military," says Daniel Limbong, a taciturn university professor who heads one of the few nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working to contain the damage at Talawaan. "They take money, of course." It is a cozy arrangement. And a lucrative one, too. According to a recently completed report compiled by Dames and Moore, the area's illegal miners...
...Even with repeated contact, the signs of mercury poisoning take time to manifest themselves. But some are already suffering. Almost all of the miners Limbong has tested in the past six months have 25 to 30 times the normal levels of mercury. Some are showing symptoms of the poisoning: muscle weakness, blurred vision, breathing difficulties. But getting the miners to agree to be tested and admit that they are sick is very difficult. "They are scared that if they mention this sickness they will have to stop working," Limbong says...
...threat from the mercury has spread beyond the villages around the mining site. The processing units are highly mobile, with some located as far as 50 km away, says Rini Sulaiman, an environmental toxicologist with the U.S.-funded National Resources Management Program. And that, says Daniel Limbong, means the mercury contamination will eventually threaten the 400,000 people living in Manado. It could be happening already. According to Limbong, samples taken from sediment in the estuary of the Talawaan river where it empties in Manado Bay are almost at the levels seen in samples taken where the river passes...
...largely on a diet of fish caught in their bay. So too do the people of Manado. Every night, hundreds of stalls selling sea bream and garoupa and squid and prawns and crab and eel line the road that curves around the bay. "The Manadanese love to eat," says Limbong with a rare smile...
...gold-struck villagers like Freddy Sigarlaki, the army and police?wants things to go on as they are. Or like Fecky, who lives next to a processing unit, and powerless government officials like Bonny, who simply accept that there's no way to stop the mining. Everyone except Daniel Limbong, that is. Unlike the others, he has seen what happened to scores of other mineworkers, what happened to Femmy's baby boy. And now, "we have a report of a second deformed baby born near the mine," Limbong says, his usually impassive face creased with concern. Unless something is done...
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