Gold Lures Illegal Miners To Peru's Rainforest

......He has personally observed miners with symptoms of mercury poisoning—headaches, tremors and gastrointestinal problems—but says health officials here lack the testing equipment and resources to fully evaluate the level of exposure. He says because mercury poisoning is invisible, local authorities still don’t know how serious the problem is. What he does know is the number of miners drawn by the region’s gold rush continues to rise, and mercury continues to slowly poison the people, plants, animals and fish of Madre de Dios.........
http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/peru-gold-mining-madre-de-dios-extraction

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec11/perugoldmining_11-07.html