Dispatches

In an undercover investigation, Channel 4′s flagship current affairs strand Dispatches reveals that British consumers are being given incorrect information by some of the biggest high street jewellery shops when buying gold.

The programme reveals that gold is still being sourced unethically by sections of a gold-mining industry which is exploiting child miners, exposing children and communities who live near some mines to dangerously high levels of toxic poisoning and destroying the environment.

Ninety per cent of all gold miners worldwide, between 10 and 15 million people, are estimated to work in small-scale, artisanal or informal mines. Many of these are children earning as little as £3 per day.

Small-scale, artisanal or informal mines are estimated to make-up between 10 and 30 per cent of the global gold supply. Working conditions are appalling, with little regard to health or safety.

Open pit gold mines generate an enormous amount of waste, often toxic waste. Rock, which is removed in order to access the gold, often contains considerable quantities of heavy metals, which can be harmful to public health and toxic to aquatic life.

Dispatches talks to a child living near a mine in Honduras with levels of lead in his blood more than double the limit recommended for children by the World Health Organisation. We’ve become far more aware about the appalling human cost of blood diamonds, diamonds that fuel conflict in parts of Africa.

There are now systems in place to certify diamonds that have been ethically sourced. But gold hasn’t received the same attention. Businesswoman Deirdre Bounds, who ran a successful ethical travel company and believes that commerce and ethics can be a profitable combination, examines how much the British gold jewellery industry really knows about where the gold they sell comes from.

She reveals that by purchasing gold jewellery on the British high street consumers are inadvertently supporting child labour and environmental damage. Filming secretly in Britain’s biggest high street jewellery chains (Argos, Goldsmiths, H. Samuel, Ernest Jones and Leslie Davis), Dispatches exposes shop assistants giving incorrect information about where the gold in their jewellery is sourced.

Inaccurate statements included: In Goldsmiths, an employee stated that their gold is certified by the Kimberley Process (a scheme which certifies diamonds as being conflict free and has nothing to do with gold).

In Argos, an employee stated that all their gold was mined in Italy (Argos later admitted inaccurate information had been given). In Leslie Davis, an employee stated that their gold ‘has to be ethically sourced’. In addition, the employee stated that the company’s head office could provide information about where the gold in a particular item of jewellery was mined.

The head office later confirmed by phone that this was inaccurate. Much high street gold originates from wholesalers like Cookson Precious Metals – one of the biggest manufacturers in the UK.

On its website the company claims it is working closely with its customers and suppliers in support of environmentally and ethically sound sources for precious metals.

Dispatches secretly filmed a meeting with a Cookson sales manager and, while he appeared to be aware of the risks faced by gold miners in developing countries, he could not give customers assurances about where the company’s gold was sourced from: ‘..we get asked this a lot…where does your gold come from, what do you do to make sure that no-one’s killed in the mining…all we can say is that we buy it from reputable, reputable sources such as HSBC…we can’t get any guarantees out of those, but you can’t get the guarantee out of anybody, and so we just can’t do any more than that, really…’.

He also claimed that in the future the company would be charging a premium for an ethical alternative, 100% recycled gold, ‘because we can’. Bounds travels to the source: to the mines. In Senegal, she meets a child miner and reveals his hazardous daily existence at an illegal mine.

She also looks at allegations that a large-scale industrial mine in Honduras has caused hair-loss and rashes in the local population. In her search to find an alternative, she explores newly-launched Fairtrade and Fairmined gold and also how recycling old gold could offer an answer.

Fairtrade and Fairmined gold comes from small-scale mines in South America with the aim of creating a system where the miners can be ensured a fair price whilst mining sustainably and safely. However, only a few, small retailers are currently signed up to the scheme.

Deirdre Bounds says: ‘Many of us are seduced by the appeal of gold jewellery, but there is a real human cost attached to its production. High street stores need to be absolutely transparent and proactive in informing British consumers where the gold in their jewellery is sourced from. Only then can consumers make an informed decision. In the meantime, Bounds is appealing to the British public to sign a pledge opposing the sale of dirty gold.’

To sign the pledge below, please visit: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/the-real-price-of-gold-pledge I oppose dirty gold and call on the British jewellery industry to stop selling jewellery made from gold which has been produced using child labour or environmentally dangerous practices.

© Courtesy of Channel 4

by entertainmentnews

Dispatches: The Truth About Going Under the Knife, Monday 16 May at 8pm on Channel 4

Thousands of people face painful and expensive surgery to remove failing medical devices such as metal hip replacements and cardiovascular implants, according to investigations by the BMJ and Channel 4 Dispatches.

They raise serious concerns about the regulation of medical devices and ask how well these high-risk devices are tested before they come onto the market.

They explore a European approval process negotiated by private companies behind closed doors and reveal a worrying lack of public information about the number of devices being used and their potential risks.

They also discuss links between surgeons paid to design devices and the companies promoting them. The investigations findings are clear.

The current system is not fit for purpose and we urgently need better regulation to protect patients. Full details will be published on bmj.com on Sunday 15 May and broadcast on Channel 4 Dispatches at 8pm on Monday 16 May.

There are thousands of medical devices on the market and, worldwide, the industry is worth over £200 billion a year. Yet the approval process is far less stringent than for drugs, particularly in Europe.

What’s more, it is the manufacturer’s responsibility to monitor the performance of their devices once they are on the market. But rather than have large post-marketing studies, manufacturers may rely simply on doctors and patients to report problems.

And there is no publicly available central register of adverse effects to allow early detection of emerging problems.

The Dispatches programme will reveal examples of failing devices that have stayed on the market, despite companies being aware of problems.

In the case of articular surface replacement (ASR) metal hip implants, the manufacturer, Depuy, waited until 2010 to take its hip fully off the market, despite repeated warnings from doctors as early as 2007.

Other examples include the case of Chris Pitt, who had a combined pacemaker/defibrillator fitted in his chest which misfired over thirty times in one day. The makers Medtronic recalled it after reports of five deaths and well over 600 reports of a broken component inside the device.

Meanwhile, in America, Chase Weatherly, now a teenager, is one of 300 people who had to have surgery to replace a leaking cochlear implant manufactured by Advanced Bionics.

The programme also reveals another emerging problem with artificial hips, this time with large head metal on metal implants. Some surgeons are now raising concerns about these.

Whilst one manufacturer, DePuy, has agreed to fund costs associated with the recall of its ASR hip, it’s unclear who will pick up the bill for this new looming health crisis if all large diameter metal on metal hips require revision operations.

When the BMJ/Dispatches team asked companies for data to support the safety and effectiveness of their devices, access was denied on the grounds that it was “company confidential information.”

Even Freedom of Information requests made to the UK regulator, the MHRA, for data on adverse events for two different kinds of hip implants and one model of cochlear implant were refused as “overriden by medical device legislation.”

The MHRA has concerns about the lack of transparency and variable standards in the current system, but they say that “if we were to inhibit innovation by imposing a more burdensome regulatory regime we would have to have some extra evidence that the burden actually provided a greater degree of patient safety.”

“This story shows the power that companies have in deciding the fate of their devices, their hold over surgeons, the lack of regulatory power in Europe, and the lack of premarket clinical studies that may well have picked up some of these problems earlier,” says Dr Deborah Cohen, Investigations Editor at the BMJ.

“We have still not learned from past failures,” she adds. “Nearly 20 years ago, the BMJ highlighted the dangers of early failure of unproved implants, yet the NHS is currently picking up the bill for faulty devices. Unlike kettles and toasters, which come with warranties, when devices do not last as long as they ought to companies are not necessarily held financially responsible.”

Dr Carl Heneghan, a GP and Clinical Reader at the University of Oxford adds: “Patients should have access to the evidence about the nature of their devices, the true benefits, the true harms. At the moment that’s not happening and patients are acting as guinea pigs and that’s not good enough.”

Professor Nick Freemantle at the University of Birmingham agrees. “Rather than devices being subject to an inferior regulatory model, we should extend and strengthen the approach taken for pharmaceuticals,” he says.

These findings will be broadcast in Dispatches: The Truth About Going Under the Knife on Monday 16 May at 8pm on Channel 4.

© Courtesy of Channel 4 Television

by entertainmentnews

8:00pm Monday, April 11 on

With the coalition government pledging to protect the NHS, Dispatches reporter Tazeen Ahmad investigates what’s really happening to the Health Service. Dispatches goes undercover inside one of the country’s busiest NHS hospitals as it faces multi-million-pound cuts and hundreds of job losses in the next year.

8:00pm Monday, April 4 on

With students facing massive increases in their fees, Dispatches investigates the pay, perks and privileges enjoyed by universities’ top earners.

8:00pm Monday, March 28 on C4

BP is one of the largest companies in the world and plays an important role in the British economy through UK pension funds, the billions of pounds of tax it pays and as a major employer in the UK. A year on from the start of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Dispatches examines the role of BP in this spill as well as similar incidents in the past and examines its contracts with oil-producing nations and relationship with the British government.

8:00pm Monday, March 21 on C4

Actor Richard Wilson to investigate the current situation on the railways a few weeks ahead of a major Government spending review on the trains, interviewing train experts and industry insiders as well as everyday commuters.

8:00pm Monday, March 14 on C4

On the eve of a major report looking at public sector pay, Dispatches investigates whether the beneficiaries of the government’s cuts are in fact private outsourcing companies. Financial journalist Ben Laurance looks at whether the coalition’s keystone policy, the Big Society, may actually benefit big business, while the public and voluntary sectors feel the pinch of austerity Britain.

8:00pm Monday, February 28 on C4

Every year in Britain, half a million of us will die. The NHS is there to make our final days as dignified and pain-free as possible. But as the health service ombudsman’s recent devastating report has shown, the reality can be very different. For the first time, Dispatches has given three people cameras to film the last weeks of their lives, at home, in a care home, and in hospital. Their experiences provide a unique insight into the gap between what we hope for compared with the painful reality of dying.

8:00pm Monday, February 21 on C4

More people than ever before are leaving hospital malnourished. Not only is much of the food disgusting, but some patients are having their health put at risk by cost-cutting and sloppy production. Reporter Mark Sparrow spent ten weeks in traction in hospital. He photographed and filmed dozens of dreadful meals. Since he has been released he has set out to discover whether his experience was a one-off or symptomatic of a deeper problem. Heston Blumenthal attempts to revolutionise the catering at Alder Hey children’s hospital on Channel 4 tomorrow.

8:00pm Monday, February 14 on C4

Dispatches goes undercover to investigate allegations that teachers regularly assault young children in some of the 2,000 Muslim schools in Britain run by Islamic organisations. The programme also follows up allegations that, behind closed doors, some Muslim secondary schools teach a message of hatred and intolerance.