This picture depicts only eight of the tens of thousands of children forced into hard physical labor in the Mica mines.
Did you know that every time you buy a colored candle the likely hood of it containing mica mined by a child is right around 60% chance. Yes. Shocking right?! That is not even including the hundreds of suspected illegal mica mines either. These are just the documented mines.
OSHA lists the WORKPLACE EXPOSURE LIMITS at 20 mppcf. Unfortunately experts believe these kids are being forced to withstand levels that are known to cause chronic health effects, that even may include cancer.
So here we have an ethical problem. Because the poverty level in Madagascar; where these mines are, is forcing these kids to work. The owners of the land and mines are getting filthy rich paying a wage too small to buy more than one meal a day for its "employees". Call me crazy but a 5 year old mining for 8 hours should be eating more than a plate of rice every day.
It's really quite appalling that big corporations (like Nike, Hershey, apple and amazon but many more) can continue to make money off of blue collar customers while completely exploiting the poorest of the poor. I like to think that it is genuinely because of lack of awareness that they still have business.
Essentially any time you see a colored candle, or bath bomb you may want to take a look at the ingredients.
Initially, when I started making candles I attempted several different ways to color them (that did not include mica). Unfortunately those results were so inconsistent and choppy I eventually tapped out and decided to keep the raw, uncolored, creamy soy and ROCK IT.
I'm still open to different coloring methods, so if you have any suggestions email meh!
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