Peru’S Illegal Gold Mining Poisoning Children, Natives

Toxic levels of mercury coming from illegal gold miners in Peru’s south eastern Amazon are being dumped in the jungle’s rivers, posing serious health risk to children, a new study by the Carnegie Amazon Mercury Project reveals.
Peru is the world’s sixth largest gold producer.
Consumption of high levels of mercury during pregnancy it is documented to cause severe, permanent brain damage to the unborn child, as well as other issues, such as attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder-related behaviours in young children.
The situation is mirrored in dozens of the countries, where gold is similarly mined and where the desperately poor often end up working in risky conditions.
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