Mercury is in Peru’s Amazon in approximately 80 percent of the villagers in the recent study

A new study in Merkuri is that the original societies and river in the Loreto region of Amazon in Peru.

The results of the test released by the Amazon Scientific Innovation Center at Wick -Forest in the United States appear in the United States, approximately 80 percent of people who were tested late last year, levels of mercury are much higher than the safe border in six societies on the banks of Nanai and Penico.

“The majority of the population is contaminated,” said Jiro Retgoy Davila, or San Antonio de Nanai leader, one of the societies.

“We call on the authorities to take action on this matter because we are very concerned,” he said.

The results showed that 37 percent of 273 men, women and children who have been tested have levels of mercury in more than 10 parts per million (parts per million) in their hair, compared to only three percent below 2.2 parts per million set by the World Health Organization (the World Health Organization).

How did he get a lot of mercury in the environment? The central factor is a desire for gold, according to scientists and officials.

Gold prices increased by approximately 50 percent last year, overcoming consecutive standards, and the illegal gold mining trade in the Amazon encouraged, as illegal mine workers use mercury to extract gold molecules from river silt.

Claudia Vega, head of the mercury program in Sensea, destroying the local nature, biological diversity and increasing major health concerns, said these mining operations burn mercury after gold is extracted, and the toxic metal turned into the steam absorbed by the surrounding plants, soil and rivers.

Mercury poisoning is associated with many health issues, including cognitive weakness in adults, irreversible development delay, learning difficulties for children and infants in the womb.

“It is very unfortunate that the villagers are very contaminated,” said Gabriel Baria, the regional coordinator of the heavy metals of the local health body.

He said that the Health Authority did not have a budget for mercury tests and tested only 12 villagers on a recent health visit that relies on blood and urine samples.

Beyond the limit

Cinexia said that the tests revealed that the average level was 8.41 parts per million, which exceeds the borders of the World Health Organization by four times.

Given that illegal mining in Loreto is somewhat modern, there are no comprehensive studies on its health effect on the local population so far.

But the levels in these initial tests are already higher than those in the Berovia Amazon Peruvian region, the illegal mining, Madry de Dios, where 2012 tests showed that the majority of adults were average mercury levels 2.7 parts per million.

Societies along the Amazon were forced to deal with illegal gold mining operations for decades, but they have become an escalating problem in South America in recent years, although governments that are trying to eliminate them.

In 2023, Colombia, Brazil and the United States cooperated The destruction of 19 droughts mining illegal gold In the Amazon rainforest. About 114,000 grams of mercury was thrown at the river every month in these sites, which the authorities said by a criminal group across patriotism.

Luis Fernandez, CEO of CINCIA and research professor at Wake Forest University, said if illegal mining continues in Loreto, the villagers who have high mercury levels already may start approaching proximity to cases that have been recorded worse than mercury pollution.

This includes the Bay of Minota, the famous issue in Japan in the fifties, where children were born with birth defects and nervous disability resulting from a mercury chemical factory in water supply for decades.

Vega of Cinxia, ​​who led the study, said the results showed the “background” levels of mercury in the rinse Loreto societies.

Vega said the fish -based diet was the largest veil to enter the mercury that entered their systems. Although this particular study was unable to determine whether mercury came from sources that spoke naturally or activities that caused humans such as illegal gold mining, I noticed that “many studies agree that entering mining into an area tends to increase mercury levels significantly in the environment.”

The researchers found that the villagers who were tested for this newly released study were mainly exposed to methyl mercury.

“(The biggest) is a risk for women and pregnant children: Machille can cross the placenta and affect the development of a developing child’s brain.” “This type of exposure is a serious concern in public health, even if the affected individuals do not show immediate symptoms.”