Among the products made in China on the long list of newly levied tariffs, there is a seemingly random item: mica—whether in powder or in its original form. Silicate minerals, along with products such as handbags, furniture, electronics, cotton and silk, and cosmetics, are affected by tariffs of up to 25% imposed by the Trump administration in the escalating trade war with China.

Mica is hardly a harmless item. The term can be used interchangeably with potassium aluminum silicate and CI 77019. It is almost the core ingredient of all shiny beauty products. It can be found in Kylie Cosmetics' eyeshadow palette, YSL's Touche Eclat full effect brightening pen, Dior's Dreamskin foundation and Glossier's Vinylic Lip Shine-just to name a few.

This gleaming mineral—usually used to add luster to car paints and building materials, and to act as an insulator in electronic chips—is not worth noting because it is expected to become more expensive due to the recent U.S. government’s rise to power. This cost may be passed on to consumers, but for a more ominous reason: how it ended in China in the first place.

Although mica comes from mines all over the world, high-quality mica flakes from mines in the dense forests of Bihar and Jharkhand make eastern India the main producer of this mineral. According to the Guardian, Bihar and Jharkhand together account for about 25% of the world’s production. “​​Some of the world’s largest cosmetics companies, including L’Oreal and Estee Lauder, as well as suppliers such as Merck, purchase mica. From India", it is "one of the largest producers in the world".

As Refinery29 combined with its own observations on common cosmetic ingredients pointed out, before “collecting them by the broker who sells them to the exporter, and then delivering them to the manufacturer”, it must be collected from the earth—a item usually made by children. Most of them do not wear shoes for the dangerous work done, "some of them are only 5 years old".

"With ice axes, hammers, and baskets," the children in Bihar and Jharkhand "carved carefully into the sides and back of the pit to loosen the rock and mud fragments, and then carefully drag it out of the mine. ", including as small as the rabbit hole. "It costs 20 to 30 rupees, or 0.29 to 0.43 cents for a day's work, and about 22,000 Indian children" take turns to pour their baskets on a basic sieving tool that can see a few handfuls of mica. "

With their small bodies, children are particularly able to "climb into narrow mines." The Thomson Reuters Foundation pointed out that their small hands are very suitable for "selecting and sorting minerals" from soil or rock, which is why many of them work in the mines of Bihar and Jharkhand, where there are about 90%. % Of people are not supervised-not participating although Indian law prohibits children under 18 from working in mines and other dangerous industries.

This job is dangerous. "Abrasion and fractures are part of daily life in mica mines," the German news website Spiegel revealed in a long report on the prevalence of children in the mica trade. They "are afraid of the scorpions hiding under the rocks-and then the quartz dust they stir and inhale", which can lead to direct health problems, such as respiratory infections such as bronchitis, but also "makes them more susceptible to tuberculosis and cancer."

Nevertheless, the risk of death is still high. Although “there is no official data on child deaths in mines because [such work] is illegal,” Der Spiegel reported in 2017 that the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (“BBA”) has been recording “10 to 20 mica tunnels” "Every month. “We learned about them through the network of the village where we work,” Raj Bhushan, BBA's project coordinator in Jharkhand, told the publication.

BBA has been working with cosmetic giants such as Estee Lauder, L'Oréal and Yves Rocher, as well as local communities and governments to "improve educational infrastructure and living conditions" to promote the entry of 500 children from villages in eastern India "to school instead of mining."

In view of child labor issues, other companies have switched from natural mica to synthetic mica. For example, Simon Constantine, the head of ethical trading at the British cosmetics company Lush, "represented that when armed guards were required to accompany the auditor to a mica mine in India, he knew something was wrong."

Merck’s officials told Der Spiegel that because they lacked confidence in the Indian authorities, they “take the initiative to look for responsible suppliers that abide by worker safety standards and do not employ children in their mines ten years ago.” Merck and Chanel, Sephora, Coty, and other global companies such as consumer electronics manufacturer Philips have developed a responsible mica initiative with the goal of ending child labor in mica mines by 2022.

Other companies that use mica to produce products, such as Glossier, stated that they "only work with those who use ethical labor practices." But Spiegel's reporters Marius Münstermann and Christian Werner were skeptical. They asked, given the "complexity and opacity of the mica trade", is it actually possible for even the most well-meaning companies to adequately monitor their suppliers?

The general consensus between journalists and researchers seems to be negative.

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