Illegal gold mining exposing Peru's indigenous tribes to mercury poisoning

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Illegal gold mining exposing Peru's indigenous tribes to mercury poisoning

Dan Collyns in Lima
theguardian.com, Monday 9 September 2013 17.30 BST

Indigenous children in Peru's south eastern Amazon, an area where tens of thousands of illegal gold miners operate, have unsafe mercury concentrations over three times the level of their non-native counterparts, a study has found.

The artisanal gold miners, who use mercury to extract the precious metal from river silt, dump more than 30 tons of the toxic metal in rivers and lakes in the Amazon region every year.

Native communities had levels of mercury roughly five times that considered safe by the World Health Organisation (WHO), whereas people in urban areas had double the safe limit, the study by the Carnegie Amazon Mercury Project found.

Overall, children were the most vulnerable group with mean mercury levels more than double the safe limit (1ppm – parts per million). Children in native communities had mercury levels more than five times that limit (5.2ppm). Some individuals had levels as high as 34 times the safe limit, according to the research.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/09/peru-amazon-indigenous-tribe-gold-mining

[Bill USA]

1. recommended

[cprise]

2. People trading gold and putting it on a pedestal

...as if you can't have any "real value" without gold... I just have to shake my head at them and wonder what they would think of a world with 7 billion people all scheming to set upon the landmasses in the hope of extracting gold.

A market that sustained $2500 or $3000 / ounce would tear this planet to shreds at twice the rate we already are.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Study: Natives most affected by Amazon mercury

Published Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 12:01 am / Updated at 7:43 pm
Study: Natives most affected by Amazon mercury
By CARLA SALAZAR

LIMA, Peru (AP) - A study of mercury contamination from rampant informal gold mining in Peru's Amazon says indigenous people who get their protein mostly from fish are the most affected, particularly their children.

The new research detailed Monday by the Carnegie Institution for Science found mercury levels above acceptable limits in 76.5 percent of the people living in the Madre de Dios region, both rural and urban populations.

"Most of the communities that had the highest concentrations of mercury were native communities," said Luis E. Fernandez, the project director.

The people in those communities had mercury levels, based on hair samples, more than five times maximum acceptable levels and 2.3 times greater than those in non-indigenous communities, he said.

More:
http://www.omaha.com/article/20130910/AP10/309109993