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Dark side of jewellery business revealed
31. March 2006, Swissinfo - Non-governmental organisations have been highlighting the darker side of the jewellery trade as the Baselworld watch and jewellery fair gets underway.
While some groups have warned that jewellery workers are being exploited in the developing world, others have raised concerns over the role of illegal diamonds in African conflicts.
At an event on the sidelines of the Basel fair, a day before it opened, a delegation from India and China said there was often a human cost behind sparkling gemstones.
"We want to make Baselworld aware of the illness-inducing working conditions to which we jewellery polishers are exposed," said Feng Xingzhong, a former worker at a jewellery factory in southern China.
It has been reported that thousands of workers who polish stones, especially in China and India, are dying because their lungs are clogged with silica dust, a disease known as silicosis.
For this reason NGOs, including Solifonds, a solidarity organisation of the Swiss labour movement, have banded together to launch an international campaign demanding better working conditions and compensation for silicosis-affected workers.
They are also calling on the International Jewellery Trade Association to oblige its members to start a fund to help those suffering from the illness.
Health and safety
Healthy and safety standards should be improved through the use of new technology, guidelines and checks, say the campaign organisers. They also called on Switzerland to play its part.
"When it issues invitations, Baselworld should have a critical look at production conditions and bar companies from the fair if they infringe labour legislation," said Remo Gysin, a Swiss parliamentarian and Solifonds board member.
Baselworld said that it was aware of the issue.
"We take this topic very seriously and remain in dialogue with representatives of the campaign," said Bernhard Keller, a Baselworld spokesman, after meeting the delegation.
Keller said future exhibitors would be made aware that the entry criteria to the fair include recognising the importance of labour laws. However, banning a company would need strong evidence.
Conflict diamonds
Human rights organisation Amnesty International and campaign group Global Witness are aiming to draw attention to the problem of "conflict diamonds".
"Here diamonds are a symbol of love, but especially in Africa they finance hate," said Danièle Gosteli Hauser, from the Swiss branch of Amnesty.
Proceeds of the illegal diamond trade have been used to fuel long-running conflicts in Africa, including those in Angola, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
NGOs say that at present "dirty" diamonds from Ivory Coast are landing on the international market.
The Kimberley Process, introduced in 2003, requires governments to control imports and exports of rough diamonds. In addition, the diamond industry has also introduced voluntary international guidelines.
Action needed
However, many jewellers are still not checking the origin of stones on purchase, according to a survey carried out by Amnesty International and Global Witness in 2004, which also covered Switzerland.
The two organisations are therefore recommending that people ask retailers about the origin of diamonds before they buy as a way of putting pressure on the industry.
Marc-Alain Christen, president of the Swiss Association of Jewellers and Goldsmiths, said that despite progress more work to raise awareness was needed.
The association intends to present a quality label on the origin of materials to its members. Its guidelines are expected to cover environment, child labour, health and labour law.
swissinfo and Dominique Schärer, Infosüd
Coal Miners Experience Unusual Occurrences of Black Lung Disease
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released July 6 the results of studies prompted by reports that underground coal miners are still experiencing unusual occurrences of black lung disease despite federal regulations to prevent exposure to coal dust. The "clusters of rapidly progressing and potentially disabling pneumoconiosis," or black lung disease, were found in 2005 and 2006 in some eastern Kentucky and southern Virginia miners, according to CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
In response to the 2005 and 2006 reports, the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) conducted surveys of miners in three Kentucky counties and in four Virginia counties. The results of the NIOSH testing of 975 miners indicated that four percent (37 miners) of those tested had advanced cases of black lung disease.
According to MMWR, the 37 miners with advanced cases of pneumoconiosis were categorized into two groups of workers — those who worked in jobs exposing them to silica dust (roofbolters) and those who were exposed to coal dust (coal-face workers). Both groups of miners had worked in these jobs an average of nearly 30 years.
The results, according to NIOSH, were unusual. Sixty-four percent of the coal dust workers and 42 percent of the roofbolters developed black lung. What was unexpected was the rapid advancement, in less than 10 years, of the disease among the workers exposed to coal dust. There were more cases of advanced black lung disease among these workers than among the roofbolters who were exposed to silica dust. Silica is more toxic to the lungs, and silicosis, one type of black lung disease, develops more quickly.
NIOSH proposed several possible explanations for the unexpected results. There might be inadequacies in the dust exposure standards, failures to comply with existing regulations and missed opportunities for miners to be screened for early disease detection through voluntary chest radiographs (a type of x-ray). The NIOSH study, however, made no attempt to determine why these unusual disease results occurred.
Ellen Smith, Owner and Managing Editor of Mine Safety and Health News, wondered why the NIOSH team that conducted the surveys did not include an examination of the working conditions in the mines they visited. "Did anyone look at the history in these mines of ventilation, dust control, and water spray violations?" she asked in a telephone interview.
Federal laws have regulated exposure to coal mine dust since 1969, with amendments in 1977, and are credited with a reduction of black lung among underground coal miners. According to MMWR, the "prevalence of all pneumoconiosis…among underground miners with [at least 25] years on the job dropped from approximately 30% in the early 1970s to [less than] 5% in the late 1990s."
Legislation introduced in the House (H.R. 2769) in June would revise the 1977 standards for respirable coal dust to those NIOSH recommended in 1995. (See the Watcher article on the legislation.) In addition, according to MMWR, NIOSH is examining mining environments to evaluate current exposure levels and conducting investigations to gather more data on disease clusters.
© 2007 OMB Watch
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