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Article

2 Jul 2014

Author:
Human Rights Watch

Kenya: Toxic Lead Threatening Lives [Includes video]

Thousands of people in a poor urban district outside Mombasa face serious health consequences from toxic lead from a battery recycling plant...Human Rights Watch released a film, Kenya: Factory Poisons Community, documenting the health and environmental damage caused by the smelter, threats to activists working on the issue, and efforts by local residents to seek justice. At least three workers at the smelter have died from lead poisoning, and the community of 3,000 people remains contaminated...Former workers in the smelter described working in toxic conditions with little or no protective gear. Several workers said that managers openly told them that they were going to die because of the dangerous nature of the work, yet offered neither adequate protective gear nor medical treatment. “The Kenyan authorities in Mombasa authorized the smelter as part of a program to stimulate investment,” Cohen said. “But investment should not come at the expense of the lives and health of workers and residents.”