A/HRC/43/30 Child labour 38. Approximately 85 million children are engaged in hazardous labour affecting their health through exposure to toxic substances, agents and processes.55 Children work with such substances in major global industries, particularly mining, tanning and agriculture. Governments do not in general monitor the impacts of such operations on the rights of these children. 39. Children working in agriculture are exposed to extremely high concentrations of pesticides, which cause severe immediate and long-term health harms, including death. Children working on a variety of agricultural crops worldwide have reported sickness after handling or working in close proximity to pesticides, fertilizers and other chemical agents.56 40. Children working in tobacco farming are exposed to nicotine from handling tobacco plants and leaves, leading to acute nicotine poisoning and potential long-term health effects.57 41. Children regularly work in dangerous conditions in small- and large-scale mines, often without protective equipment. They work with mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mines in up to 70 countries. Children report several significant health impacts, including serious, persistent respiratory diseases.58 Child labourers often have little or no information about the health risks of toxic substances or safety measures to mitigate such risks. 59 Components for smartphones, electric car batteries and other electronic products expose child miners to toxicants.60 D. Intersecting discrimination and inequalities 42. Exposure to environmental health risks is unequal across countries and regions, with a higher burden in developing countries, and within society, often due to discrimination and inequalities based on social or economic characteristics such as income, social status, employment, education, gender, age, disability and ethnicity. 61 Close interlinkages exist between the intersecting inequalities and discrimination that certain groups face and the effects of climate change, environmental degradation and exposure to pollution and toxic substances. 43. Children disproportionately affected include those from indigenous, low-income, rural and marginalized communities, children from developing countries, girls, and children on the move, separated from their families and with disabilities. 62 Children in geographically vulnerable areas, such as riparian and low-lying coastal areas, arid regions, high mountain regions, polar zones and other delicate ecosystems will also be disproportionately affected.63 44. The poorest communities are often the site of waste dumps, refineries, power plants, polluting facilities and roads with high traffic volumes, exposing those who live in such communities to higher levels of environmental harm. Indigenous peoples and traditional 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 8 www.ilo.org/global/topics/child-labor/lang--en/index.htm; www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/ CRC/HLPoliticalForumSustainableDevelopment.pdf. Submission from Human Rights Watch. See, e.g., Thomas Arcury and Sara Quandt, “Health and social impacts of tobacco production”, Journal of Agromedicine, vol. 11, Nos. 3–4 (2006). Mabel A. Hoedoafia and others, “The effects of small-scale gold mining on living conditions: a case study of the West Gonja District of Ghana”, International Journal of Social Science Research, vol. 2, No. 1 (2014); submission from Human Rights Watch. Submission from Human Rights Watch. www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/01/child-labor-behind-smart-phone-and-electric-car-batteries/. www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRC/HLPoliticalForumSustainableDevelopment.pdf. Human Rights Council resolution 35/20. A/HRC/35/13, para. 20.