Flowers, diamonds, and gold: The destructive public health, human rights, and environmental consequences of symbols of love

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 30, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 164-182

  Donohoe, Martin ^a  

^a PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DIAMOND; ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT; FLOWER; GOLD; HUMAN RIGHTS; PUBLIC HEALTH; SAFETY;

EID: 39849090684     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2008.0003     Document Type: Review

References (101)

1. David Tenenbaum, Would a Rose Not Smell as Sweet? Problems Stem from the Cut Flower Industry, 110 ENVIRON. HEALTH PERSPECT. A240, A241 (2002).
2. Kevin Watkins, Deadly Blooms, THE GUARDIAN, 29 Aug. 2001, available at http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/ 0,7843,543351,00.html. These issues were dramatized briefly in the poignant and powerful 2004 film, Maria Full of Grace.
3. Tenenbaum, supra note 1, at A246.
4. International Labor Organization (ILO), Working Paper on the World Cut Flower Industry: Trends and Prospects, SAP 2.80/WP.139 (28 Sep. 2000), available at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/ sector/papers/ctflower/index.htm.
5. Ross Wehner, Flower Power: With an Entrepreneur's Jump Start, the Organic Market Blossoms, E/THE ENVIRONMENTAL MAGAZINE, Nov.-Dec. 2004.
6. Tenenbaum, supta note 1, at A241.
7. Watkins, supra note 2.
8. Elizabeth A. Stanton, Flowers for Mother's Day?, DOLLARS AND SENSE: THE MAGAZINE OF ECONOMIC JUSTICE, May/June 2003, available at http://www.dollarsandsense.org/0503stanton.html.
9. Id.
10. Tenenbaum, supra note 1, at A245.
11. Watkins, supra note 2.
12. Wehner, supra note 5.
13. Tenenbaum, supra note 1, at A242; Stanton, supra note 8.
14. Tenenbaum, supra note 1, at A242-A243; Wehner, supra note 5; Stanton, supra note 8.
15. Tenenbaum, supra note 1, at A243.
16. Eric Hansen & Martin T. Donohoe, Health Issues of Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers, 14 J. HEALTH CARE FOR THE POOR AND UNDERSERVED 153, 157 (2003); Martin T. Donohoe, Trouble in the Fields: Effects of Migrant and Seasonal Farm Labor on Women's Health and Weli-Being, 9 MEDSCAPE OB/GYN AND WOMEN'S HEALTH (2004), available at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/470445.
17. Linda Rosenstock, Matthew Keifer, William E. Daniell, Robert McConnell & Keith Claypoole, Chronic Central Nervous System Effects of Acute Organophosphate Pesticide Intoxication, 338 THE LANCET 223, 223-28 (1991); Shelia Hoar Zahm & Mary H. Ward, Pesticides and Childhood Cancer, 106 (Supp. 3) ENVIRON. HEALTH PERSPECT. 893, 893-98, 904-05 (1998); TED SCHETTLER, GINA SOLOMON, MARIA VALENTI & ANNETTE HUDDLE, GENERATIONS AT RISK: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT 10 115-25 (1999); Lola Roldán-Tapia, Tesifón Parrón & Fernando Sánchez-Santed, Neuropsychological Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Organophosphate Pesticides, 27 NEUROTOXICOL. & TERATOL. 259, 259-60, 263-64 (2005); Eduard Monsó, Ramón Magarolas Isabel Badorrey, Katja Radon, Dennis Nowak & Josep Morera, Occupational Asthma in Greenhouse Flower and Ornamental Plant Growers, 165 Am. J. RESPIR. & CRIT. CARE MED. 954, 954-58 (2002); B. F Lander, L. E. Knudsen, M. O. Gamborg, H. Jarnentaus, H. Norppa, Chromosome Aberrations in Pesticide-Exposed Greenhouse Workers, 26 SCANDINAVIAN J. WORK, ENV'T & HEALTH 436 (2000); Eduard Monsó, Occupational Asthma in Greenhouse Workers, 10 CURR. OPIN. IN PULM. MED. 147, 149 (2004); E. Paulsen, J. Søgaard, K. E. Andersen, Occupational Dermatitis in Danish Gardeners and Greenhouse Workers: (I) Prevalence and Possible Risk Factors, 37 CONTACT DERMATITIS 263, 263-64, 268-69 (1997). See generally, Grace J. A. Ohayo-Mitoko, Hans Kromhout, Philip N. Karumba & Jan S. M. Boleij, Identification of Determinants of Pesticide Exposure Among Kenyan Agricultural Workers Using Empirical Modeling, 43 ANN. OCCUP. HYG. 519 (1999).
18. Carlos Sonnenschein & Ana M. Soto, An Updated Review of Environmental Estrogen nd Androgen Mimics and Antagonists, 65 J. STEROID BIOCHEM. & MOLEC. BIOL. 143, 144-47, 149 (1998); SCHETTLER ET. AL. , supra note 17, AT 107-11, 113-20, 122-25. See generally, Rosenstock et. al., supra note 17, at 223-28; Zahm & Ward, supra note 17, at 893-905.
19. Annette Abell, Erik Ernst, & Jens Peter Bonde, Semen Quality and Sexual Hormones in Greenhouse Workers, 26 SCANDINAVIAN J. WORK, ENV'T & HEALTH 492 (2000); Grazia Petrelli & Irene Figa-Talamanca, Reduction in Fertility in Male Greenhouse Workers Exposed to Pesticides, 17 EUR. J. EPIDEMIOL. 675 (2001); Markku Sallmen, Jyrki Liesivuori, Helena Taskinen, Marja-Liisa Lindhohm, Ahti Anttila, Lea Aalto, Kari Hemminki, Time to Pregnancy among the Wives of Finnish Greenhouse Workers, 29 SCANDINAVIAN J. WORK, ENV'T & HEALTH 85 (2003); Annette Abell, Svend Juul, Jens Peter Bonde, Time to Pregnancy among Female Greenhouse Workers, 26 SCANDINAVIAN J. WORK, ENV'T & HEALTH 131 (2000); Sandra Gomez-Arroyo, Yooko Diaz-Sanchez, M. Angel Meneses-Perez, Rafael Villalobos-Pietrini, Jorge De Leon-Rodriguez, Cytogenetic Biomonitoring in a Mexican Floriculture Worker Group Exposed to Pesticides, 466 MUTATION RES. 117 (2000); Tenenbaum, supra note 1.
20. Tenenbaum, supra note 1, at A245; Hansen & Donohoe, supra note 16, at 158; Donohoe, Trouble in the Fields, supra note 16; SCHETTLER, supra note 17, at 16-18.
21. Tenenbaum, supra note 1, at A244.
22. Tenenbaum, supra note 1, at 243.
23. Id.
24. ANTHONY M. EVANS, ORE GEOLOGY AND INDUSTRIAL MINERALS: AN INTRODUCTION 104, 110-12 (3d ed. 1993).
25. Andrew Cockburn, Diamonds: The Real Story, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, Mar. 2002, at 21.
26. Sarah Wilkins, For Richer or Poorer. Rockingthe World, MOTHER JONES 24 (Jan./Feb. 2005), available at http:// www.motherjones.com/news/exhibit/2005/01/exhibit.html.
27. Id.
28. Id.
29. Cockburn, supra note 25, at 13.
30. GLOBAL WITNESS & PARTNERSHIP AFRICA CANADA, RICH MAN, POOR MAN: DEVELOPMENT DIAMONDS AND POVERTY DIAMONDS: THE POTENTIAL FOR CHANGE IN THE ARTISANAL ALLUVIAL DIAMOND FIELDS OF AFRICA (22 Oct. 2004) at 1, 6, available at http://www.globalwitness.org/ media_library_detail.php/127/en/rich_man_poor_man.
31. Id.
32. Tom Price, Exiles of the Kalahari, MOTHER JONES 30 gan. /Feb. 2005), available at http://www.rnotherjones.com/news /dispatch/2005/01/07_800.html. See Elizabeth Stanton, Center for Popular Economics: Field Guide to the U.S. Economy, Econ-Atrocity: Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even if They Really Want to Give You One (14 Feb. 2002), available at http://www.fguide.org/?p=53 [hereinafter Econ-Atrocity].
33. Martin Donohoe, Causes and Health Consequences of Environmental Degradation and Social Injustice, 56 Soc. SCI. & MED. 573-587 (2003); Martin T. Donohoe, The Roles and Responsibilities of Medical Educators, Ethicists and Humanists in Confronting the Health Consequences of Environmental Degradation and Social Injustice (2007) (unpublished manuscript, on file with Health and Human Rights).
34. PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, WAR-RELATED SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN SIERRA LEONE: A POPULATION-BASED ASSESSMENT 1-2, 17-22 (2002), available at http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/documents/reports/ sexual-violence-sierra-leone.pdf; Stanton, Econ-Atrocity, supra note 32 See also World Diamond Council, What are Conflict Diarnonds?: Background, available at http://www.diamondfacts.org/ conflict/background.html; United Methodist Committee on Relief, Do You Know Where Your Diamond Has Been?, available at http:// gbgm-umc.org/UMcor/emergency/conflictdiamonds.stm; United Methodist Committee on Relief, Diamonds Fund Cycle of Violence in Africa, available at http://gbgm-umc.org/UMcor/stories/doyouknow.stm.
35. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, CHILDREN'S RIGHTS: CHILD SOLDIERS (2004), available at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/index.htm; HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, SOWING TERROR: ATROCITIES AGAINST CIVILIANS IN SIERRA LEONE (1998), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports98 /sierra; Hans Veeken, Sierra Leone: People Displaced because of Diamonds, 309 BRIT. MED. J. 523 (1994); GLOBAL WITNESS & PARTNERSHIP AFRICA CANADA, supra note 30, at 6; Stanton, Econ-Atrocity, supra note 32.
36. Greg Campbell, Blood Diamonds, Amnesty International Magazine (Fall 2002), available at http://www.amnestyusa.org/Fall_Blood_Diamonds/ page.do?id=1105119&n1=2&n2=19&n3=338; GLOBAL WITNESS, FOR A FEW DOLLAR$ MORE: HOW AL QAEDA MOVED INTO THE DIAMOND TRADE (17 Apr. 2003) at 6-15, 20-27, 28-32, available at http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/109/en/ for_a_few_dollars-more.
37. UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE, REPORT TO CONGRESSIONAL REQUESTERS, INTERNATIONAL TRADE: CRITICAL ISSUES REMAIN IN DETERRING CONFLICT DIAMOND TRADE (June 2002), available at http:// www.gao.gov/new.items/d02678.pdf
38. World Trust Gold Services, As Good as Gold: A Standard for the Ages, available at http://streettracksgoldshares.com/pdf/ history_of_gold.pdf.
39. NATL MINING ASSN., THE HISTORY OF GOLD, available at http://www.nma.org/pdf/gold/gold_history.pdf; Rebecca Solnit, The New Gold Rush-gold mining in Nevada, SIERRA MAGAZINE, Jul-Aug. 2000, at 86.
40. PAYAL SAMPAT, WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE, SCRAPPING MINING DEPENDENCE (2003).
41. Solnit, supra note 39.
42. Matt Jacks, The History of the Wedding Ring - A Recognizable Symbol of Love, available at http://www.thehistoryof.net/ history-of-the-wedding-ring.html.
43. Scott Fields, Tarnishing the Earth: Gold Mining's Dirty Secret, 109 ENVIRON. HEALTH PERSPECT. A474 (2001); Gold Jewelry: From Open Pit to Wedding Band, WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE, available at http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1491.
44. Goldjewelry: From Open Pit to Wedding Band, WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE, available at http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1491.
45. SAMPAT, supra note 40.
46. Id.
47. Id.
48. Id.
49. EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, DIRTY METALS: MINING, COMMUNITIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT 26 (2004), available at http://www.nodirtygold.org/pubs/DirtyMetals.pdf.
50. EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49.
51. SAMPAT, supra note 40.
52. Catherine Campbell & Brian Williams, Beyond the Biomedical and Behavioural: Towards an Integrated Approach to HIV Prevention in the Southern African Mining Industry, 48 SOC. SCI. MED. 1624, 1626 (1999).
53. SAMPAT, supra note 40.
54. Id. at 120.
55. Id.
56. EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49, at 18.
57. U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Campaign to Cut Polluter Pork (2002), available at http://www.pirg.org/enviro/Pork/index.htm.
58. SAMPAT, supra note 40; EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49, at 29.
59. EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49, at 29.
60. Id. at 16.
61. Id. at 23.
62. EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49, at 22.
63. Id. at 15.
64. No Dirty Gold, Threatened Natural Areas, available at http:// www.nodirtygold.org/threatened_natural_areas.cfm.; EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49, at 14-15.
65. Gold Jewelry: From Open Pit to Wedding Band, supra note 44.
66. Ronald Eisler & Stanley N. Wiemeyer, Cyanide Hazards to Plants and Animals from Gold Mining and Related Water Issues, 183 REV. ENVTL. CONTAMINATION & TOXICOL. 21 (2004); EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49, at 2, 9.
67. EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49, at 5.
68. Id. at 29.
69. Id. at 6.
70. Fields, supra note 43, at A478.
71. Phillipe Grandjean, Roberta F. White, Anne Nielsen, David Cleary & Elisabeth C. de Oliveira Santos, Methylmercury Neurotoxicity in Arnazonian Children Downstream from Gold Mining, 107 ENVIRON. HEALTH PERSPECT. 587 (1999); Ana Amelia Boischio & Diane S. Henshel, Risk Assessment of Mercury Exposure through Fish Consumption by the Riverside People in the Madeira Basin, Amazon, 1991, 17 NEUROTOXICOLOGY 169 (1996); Id., at 169-175.
72. Masazumi Harada, et al., Mercury Pollution in the Tapajos River Basin, Amazon: Mercury Level of Head Hair and Health Effects, 27 ENVIRONMENT INTL. 285, 285 (2001).
73. Martin Lodenius & Olaf Malm, Mercury in the Amazon, 157 s REV. ENVTL. CONTAMINATION & TOXICOL. 25, 46 (1998).
74. Pamela Paradis Powell, Minamata Disease: A Story of Mercury's Malevolence, 84 SOUTHERN MED. J. 1352 (1991); M. Harada, Minamata Disease: Methylmercury Poisoning in Japan Caused by Environmental Pollution, 25 CRITICAL REV. TOXICOL. 1 (1995). Minamata Disease was documented with great poignancy in an award-winning photo-essay by William Eugene Smith & Aileen Mioko Sprauge Smith & Ishikawa Takeshi, available at http://www.geocities.com/ minoltaphotographyw/williameugenesmith.html.
75. EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49, at 9; Solnit, supra note 39, at 50-57, 86; Rebecca Solnit, The New Gold Rush, SIERRA MAGAZINE 53, Jul.-Aug. 2000, at 54.
76. Fields, supra note 43, at A481.
77. EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49, at 8; Gold Jewelry: From Open Pit to Wedding Band, supra note 44.
78. Fields, supra note 43, at A475.
79. EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA supra note 49, at 12 - Solnit, supra note 39.
80. Raul Harari, Francesco Forastiere, & Olav Axelson, Unacceptable "Occupational" Exposure to Toxic Agents among Children in Ecuador, 32 Am. J. INDUSTRIAL MED. 185, 186 (1997); EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, supra note 49, at 25.
81. Marilyn Berlin Snell, The Cost of Doing Business, SIERRA MAGAZINE, May/june 2004, available at http://www.sierraclub. org/sierra/200405/terrorism/printable_all.asp.
82. EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, DIRTY METALS, supra note 49, at 14, 19, 24.
83. SAMPAT, supra note 40, at 126.
84. SAMPAT, supra note 40, at 114.
85. Russel Mokhiber & Robert Weissman, Sell the Gold, Free the Poor, 1 Jun. 2005, available at http://lists.essential.org /pipermail/corp-focus/2005/000205.html.
86. Wehner, supra note 5, at 19-20.
87. Tenenbaum, supra note 1, at A247.
88. Scientific Certification Systems, The Veriflora Certification System, available at http://www.scscertified.com/csrpurchasing/veriflora /docs/VeriFlora_FAQ.pdf; Wehner, supra note 5
89. Martin T. Donohoe, GE - Bringing Bad Things to Life: Cradle to Grave Health Care and the Unholy Alliance between General Electric Medical Systems and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, 41 SYNTHESIS/ REGENERATION 31-33 (2006).
90. Sanjiv Arole, Cultured Diamonds are Here to Stay, REDIFF. COM, 31 Mar. 2004, available at http://inhome.redff.com/ money/2004/mar/31guest.htm.
91. Carly Wickell, Jewelry/Accessories: Creating Diamonds from Human Ashes, ABOUT.COM, available at http://jewelry. about.com/cs/syntheticdiamonds/a/lifegem_diamond.htm.
92. PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, supra note 34.
93. Id.
94. 19 U.S.C. 3901; GLOBAL WITNESS & PARTNERSHIP AFRICA CANADA, THE KEY TO KIMBERLEY: INTERNAL DIAMOND CONTROLS: SEVEN CASE STUDIES (22 Oct. 2004), available at http://www.globalwitness.org/ media_library_detail.php/126/en/the_key_to_kimberley.
95. Press Release, Amnesty International & Global Witness, Déjà Vu: Diamond Industry Still Failing to Deliver on Promises, AI Index POL 34/008/2004, 18 Oct. 2004, available at http://web.amnesty.org/iibrary/pdf/POL340082004ENGLISH/$File /POL3400804.pdf.
96. Gold Jewelry: From Open Pit to Wedding Band, supra note 44.
97. The Golden Rules, No DIRTY GOLD, available at http://www.nodirtygold.org/goldenrules.cfm; Retailers who Support the Golden Rules, NO DIRTY GOLD, available at http:// www.nodirtygold.org/supporting_retailers.cfm.
98. Convention (No. 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in independent Countries, adopted 27 June 1989, ILO, General Conf., 76th sess. (entered into force 5 Sep. 1991), available at http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/62.htm (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights); EARTHWORKS & OXFAM AMERICA, DIRTY METALS, supra note 49.
99. Int'l Labor Org., Ratifications of ILO Convention, No. C169, (3 Oct. 2007), available at http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/ ratifce.pl?C169.
100. Ata Akcil, Destruction of Cyanide in Gold Mill Effluents: Biological versus Chemical Treatments, 21 BIOTECHNOLOGY ADVANCES 501 (2003).
101. Katherine Kerlin, Diamonds Aren't Forever: Environmental Degradation and Civil War in the Gem Trade, E/THE ENVIRONMENTAL MAGAZINE (2004), available at http://www.emagazine.com/view/?1078.