This comprehensive project by NGO Balifokus (Indonesia) documents a field-based investigation by Balifokus personnel and medical experts into the health impacts of mercury exposure on ASGM miners, their families and communities in selected communities of Indonesia. The project report documents the involvement of over 1 million Indonesians in the practice of artisanal small scale gold mining (ASGM) and reveals the growing activity of primary mercury mining that is emerging in parts of Indonesia. This groundbreaking report discusses the conditions of the miners and their communities and the diagnostic methods to determine if mercury intoxication has taken place, and records some of the health impacts among the villagers of Cisitu, Sekotong, Bombana Regency and Wonogiri Regency. Balifokus provides recommendations to address the current crisis of mercury use in small scale gold mining as well as providing important tools for other NGOs to use in their investigations of this environmentally destructive activity.
