Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

by Siddharth Kara

Contamination by heavy metals of the local population and the food supply was causing a range of negative health consequences across the Copper Belt. For instance, Germain had recently documented a high rate of birth defects in mining communities, such as holoprosencephaly, agnathia otocephaly, stillbirth, miscarriages, and low birth weight.10 Germain said that in most cases, the child’s father had been working as an artisanal miner at the time of conception and that samples of cord blood taken at birth revealed high levels of cobalt, arsenic, and uranium. Respiratory ailments were also common—“Inhalation of cobalt dust causes ‘hard metal lung disease’ which can be fatal,” Germain said. “Also, prolonged contact with cobalt by the artisanal miners can cause them to suffer acute dermatitis.”