No, I haven’t been testing out South America’s more dubious exports, I visited Potosi, in Bolivia, the world’s highest city. An interesting place, with the main industry being the silver and zinc mines in the mountain overlooking the city. I visited one of the mines and the conditions are terrible, there is very poor ventilation, it can reach up to 50 degrees and many of the tunnels are unsafe and prone to cave in. They reckon since the mine began, and slaves were used in the mines, about 8 million peopple have died in the mines (This has been reduced to about 20 per year nowadays)
The life expectancy of a worker in the mines here is about 45, because there is such high incidence of Silicosis from breathing in the dust in the mine. I was glad to get out after 2 hours. Give me a boring desk job in an air-conditioned office any day!!
