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the sulfur industry is worth nearly $13
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billion globally but the workers who
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risk their lives to mine it in an active
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volcano make just $17 a
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day why because there's a demand for
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this important ingredient in sugar and
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that's a pretty decent wage for the
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area if you look at other booming
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Industries you'll see the same trend
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from collecting oai for our smoothie
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bowls to harvesting our table salt
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people risk LIF long and limb to make a
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buck in these billion dooll
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Industries we journey around the world
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to see what it's like working some of
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the most dangerous jobs on the
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[Music]
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planet in East Java Indonesia hundreds
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of miners face deadly smoke to extract
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sulfur or Devil's gold sulfur is used in
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everything for matches fireworks and
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gunpowder to detergent paper and
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batteries it's what makes our sugar
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White
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working conditions inside Ean volcano
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are so dangerous many miners don't live
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past 50 years
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old miners like M carry up to 200 PB of
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sulfur on their backs up and down these
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steep Cliffs and M's been doing it for
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30 years
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[Music]
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this is as far as M can go on his
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bike there are no roads to the crater so
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he has to walk the rest of the
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way it's a 2-mile hike up to the ridge
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of
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volcano he takes only his basket and a
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crowbar down into the thousand foot deep
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crater here he faces the volcano's
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extreme
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environment the air can reach over 100°
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F and he works near one of the world's
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most toxic
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[Music]
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[Music]
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lakes and there's the smoke
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the miners are freelance contractors so
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they have to pay for their own gear and
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many can't afford gas masks instead they
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use handkerchiefs or towels dipped in
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water to keep the Sulfur powder from
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sticking
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but the smoke from inside the volcano is
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crucial for sulfur production this is
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how it
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works when the super hot smoke hits the
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cooler air outside it condenses liquid
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and drips off the pipe
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as it solidifies and cools the sulfur
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will turn yellow and miners can begin
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chipping off
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blocks it's a Silver's two colors that
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give it the name Devil's
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gold once he fills his baskets M hoists
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them up on his shoulder to hike back but
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that sulfur is not a light
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load that's about 154 lb M himself
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weighs just
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132 they have to haul it up the Steep
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walls of the crater
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[Music]
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once he reaches the rim of the crater
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marar can transfer the sulfur to his
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trolley and begin the two miles
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[Applause]
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back the mining company pays on the
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weight of their loads they get about 9
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cents per kilo with two loads Mard can
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make $17 a
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day at the end of the day M returns home
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to eat dinner with his family and
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rest Ean looms over them a symbol of how
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M provides for his family's lives while
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it slowly takes his a heavy weight to
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carry on his shoulders
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India is one of the world's largest salt
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producers and roughly a third of it
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comes from deep in this desert today
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thousands of families live here farming
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salt by hand they're known as the agadas
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and they've been salt producers in this
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harsh environment for
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Generations each year they arrive at the
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dry cracked land of the little r of
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cooch in
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October Padia gabay and his wife carry
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everything they'll need to live in the
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desert for the next 6
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months including supplies to make their
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Huts clothes farming tools and all their
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food and
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water first they have to find the key to
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this whole operation salty brine water
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underground they dig 30 ft into the mud
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to get to
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it the families then set up these
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government subsidized solar panels
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they'll power the pumps that bring brine
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water to the
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surface then the agaras build the salt
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pans these expansive Salt Flats
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the roller helps them flatten out the
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Earth they'll make 10 to 20 pans all by
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hand it's backbreaking
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work then the farmers will release the
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salty brine water from the wells it
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flows between the pans by the last Pan
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the water reaches the 24% salinity
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needed to form big salt
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crystals over the next few months as the
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water evaporates salt crystals
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form they start raking early each
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morning to avoid the hottest part of the
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day but working here can be really
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dangerous the life expectancy of a
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farmer is about 60 years because not
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only do they face extreme temperatures
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they're dealing with subsoil broin which
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is highly acidic and you also and
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exposure to that subsoil broin also
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comes with a lot of uh problems in
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[Music]
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in many of the agaras become blind from
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years of the bright Sun reflecting off
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the white landscape and because they're
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so far from the nearest Village
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accessing Medical Care is often too
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expensive
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[Music]
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[Music]
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despite these conditions the agaras live
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and work out here until spring when the
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salt is finally ready they harvest three
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times the first produces the best
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quality salt they leave in April usually
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with over a, tons of salt and most
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Farmers we spoke to said that this
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season's market price for salt is
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between 2 and $4 per
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ton that means in a good year a family
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will earn about $2 ,000 for months of
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grueling work that's well below the
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poverty
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[Music]
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line most of the world's comes from deep
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in the Amazon rainforest people here
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risk climbing 50ft High palm trees to
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harvest the fruit
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[Music]
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you these berries have become one of the
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most popular so-called superfoods in the
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US and they aren't cheap One Bowl can
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cost up to
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$15 and while the berry has exploded in
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popularity in recent decades small farms
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like this haven't really been able to
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cash
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in his family's Farm is roughly 70 M
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from blang the capital of the state of
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pah which grows more than 90% of the
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asai produced in
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Brazil the only tool they use to climb
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is a single piece of rope called a ponia
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they used to be made of leaves
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today Lucas's son Luis Fernando will go
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up the trunks are so thin that climbers
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have to be
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lightweight at the top they swing from
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the tree to reach multiple
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[Music]
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bunches going down can be dangerous too
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especially while carrying a large knife
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and holding an armful of
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branches dropping them could damage the
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fragile fruit
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Lucas and his family harvested 53
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baskets like these in 2021 earning them
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an income of about $950
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that's as little as 20 cents per pound
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meanwhile a pound of processed assai
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sorbet can sell for $7 or more in the
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US part of the issue is that Lucas has
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to sell his assai as soon as possible
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because the fruit goes bad fast that
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leaves farmers who don't have processing
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machines with little leverage to
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negotiate
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Merchants bring the asai to bang by
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boat it's a race against the clock to
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sell the fruit before it spoils so
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markets run overnight some assai gets
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transported to processing facilities
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like North assai every day 22 tons of
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fruit are turned into frozen pulp the
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assai that most people outside of pah
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are familiar
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with indigenous people people living in
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the Amazon have harvested and consumed
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asai for centuries maybe even
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Millennia the Brazilian government
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estimates there are nearly 6,000 kilom
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Bola communities in the country in a
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2013 study found roughly 75% still lived
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in extreme
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poverty this is in snow
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it's
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Limestone and miners risk their lives to
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carve it out of the white quaries of
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Egypt the valuable rock is at the center
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of a huge
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industry and it's used to make
00:14:43
everything from cement and glass to
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plastic and tiles it's even what the
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great pyramids were made out of but
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digging up and cutting these precious
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blocks is really
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dangerous for these guys each day starts
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in niia City at dawn
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and this is where the danger begins
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these trucks aren't meant for
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passengers workers have gotten injured
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from Falls along the winding
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Journey the trip to the mountain takes
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about 40
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minutes then it's time to get suited
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up since these miners are Freelancers
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they have to buy their own protective
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gear often homemade cloth masks gloves
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and sunglasses are all miners have to
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Shield them
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they grab their tools and descend into
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the
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pit first miners have to set up these
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two rails two separate machines Roll
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Along the tracks They slice the stone
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into perfect cuboids
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beneath the machines move quickly
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they're really heavy and they're loud
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workers shout at each other to warn the
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machines are
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nearby because the real Hazard is those
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saws a quick step is all that separates
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miners from razor sharp blade
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miners are responsible for fixing the
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machines when they break and sharpening
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the Blades by hand that's also risky
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work the cutting machines used to have
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coverings but they fell off years ago
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now the blades are
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exposed as the machines cut stone they
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kick up rocks and a haunting White Cloud
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of limestone powder if there's no wind
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miners disappear in it like
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ghosts it's easy to inhale the fine dust
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and if they breathe it long enough it
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can cause a lung condition called
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silicosis injuries sickness and death in
00:17:23
these minds are widely reported but
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there aren't any official numbers at one
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point the life expectancy here was just
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45 years
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old Zaki says many mine owners will
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offer under $200 by way of workers comp
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perfectly cut stones that haven't been
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sold yet get
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stacked but these blocks have already
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been purchased so miners throw them
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straight into the truck and they have
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perfect
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aim if they're lucky they might get a $3
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stip in for food and tea on top of their
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$6 daily wage
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these men are climbing slippery
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Limestone Cliffs risking Falls of up to
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100
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ft they're looking for a rare nest made
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of bird saliva that's found inside caves
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across southeast
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Asia in the Philippines the Harvesters
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are known as bushors
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for centuries alvino's family have put
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their lives on the line to gather
00:19:08
swiftlet
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nests just2 is worth
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$2,900 and it's used to make a soup that
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locals believe is good for your
00:19:21
health Alvin and his crew gather at
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bangalan Point on Mighty G island
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and they're heading to naath Island it's
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one of the 7,000 islands that make up
00:19:35
the Philippines and it can only be
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reached by
00:19:48
boat they get off the boat and walk
00:19:51
Barefoot across the slippery and sharp
00:19:54
rocks they make the ladder as they're
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climbing up they tighten the bamboo with
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rope then they attach a piece of wood
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called kitang to the
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ladder the stakes are
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high
00:20:44
fore but Advanced bushors like him
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sometimes use little to no support only
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their hands and
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feet this is the most dangerous way to
00:20:59
climb in the regional language it's
00:21:02
known as gagang Kang Lang or like a
00:21:19
crab Alvin has had some close calls and
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he dislocated his shoulder
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once
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forland is completely remote if there's
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an emergency there's no way to quickly
00:21:41
get help
00:22:01
after spotting the nests Alvin uses a
00:22:04
spray bottle filled with water to loosen
00:22:06
them they're then gently peeled away
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from the cave walls
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[Music]
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after harvesting the bushors clean them
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to remove any feathers or branches then
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they divide them by their hardness and
00:22:45
color the local city hall buys the nests
00:22:48
from the bushors at a regulated price
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and sells them to private customers
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around the world they are the main
00:22:55
ingredient in bird's nest soup a
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delicacy in China and around the
00:23:01
world a bowl can cost as much as
00:23:15
$100 in recent years demand for the
00:23:17
nests and bird's nest soup has gone
00:23:23
[Music]
00:23:24
up Alvin is finally home after 2 days of
00:23:28
hunting for nests the season is almost
00:23:52
over you just watched excerpts from some
00:23:55
of our big business and Risky Business
00:23:57
stories click here to watch the rest of
00:23:59
these videos
00:24:07
[Music]
