00:01Jane Nalengo first sensed something was wrong when she sent her daughter to get salt from the shop.
00:07But Elizabeth came back with cooking oil.
00:10Soon it began to affect the six-year-old at preschool.
00:16She would forget what she had been taught.
00:19Teachers said she didn't understand the lessons.
00:22So I thought it's better not to waste money and take her out of school for now and maybe enroll her later again.
00:29Jane took Elizabeth to the clinic.
00:32The level of lead in her blood was 58 micrograms per deciliter.
00:37Anything above 45 micrograms requires medical treatment, according to the WHO.
00:44The doctor said Elizabeth had low red blood cell levels, anemia, caused by lead poisoning.
00:52I felt so bad. When her father asked about the diagnosis, I couldn't answer right away.
00:58I broke down in tears then explained that her high blood lead levels were causing her low blood count.
01:06Kabwe was contaminated by a lead-in-zinc mine set up during the British colonial period.
01:12It left children in the area with what the United Nations says are some of the highest blood lead levels in the world.
01:19The mine continued operating until 1994, but lead dust from uncovered waste still affects around 200,000 people, according to Human Rights Watch.
01:30Small-scale mining continues at the site even today and exacerbates the problem.
01:36A class-action lawsuit against mining company Anglo American is seeking compensation on behalf of affected children and women of childbearing age and an environmental clean-up.
01:47The claim is that between 1925 and 1974, Anglo American played a key role in the mine's technical, medical and safety operations.
01:57Anglo American says it did not own or operate the mine and provided only technical advice to those who did.
02:04The Zambian government took over the mine in 1971 and led operations there after 1974.
02:11It has acknowledged the need for comprehensive remediation, but Human Rights Watch says it has not done much.
02:17The government is not part of the lawsuit.
02:20Matthias Chatterbankner says he worked at the Kabweh mine for more than 30 years, right up until it closed in 1994.
02:31He was a lab analyst. His job was to test samples of lead and other minerals to determine their quality.
02:36Matthias Chatterbankner says he worked at the Kabweh mine for more than 30 years, right up until it closed in 1994.
02:42He often suffered severe constipation, weakness, memory loss, and stomach pains.
03:04Lead is still in the air, soil, and water, more than three decades after the mine closed.
03:10Such contamination is especially damaging to children.
03:15Jane knows the water she gives Elizabeth to drink is probably harming her, but she has nothing else.
03:23Sometimes she wakes up weak and I feel very bad when I think of how the whites at the mine
03:28caused the whole problem of lead contamination here in our country.
03:32My heart is in pain because of this.
03:34She hopes the lawsuit will give her the means to move somewhere else, away from the home
03:43that's making them sick.
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