Rising global demand for gold has fueled a demand for mercury: the toxic
metal is used by millions of small-scale gold miners to collect gold in
the Peruvian Amazon. Mercury from the small-scale gold mines travels
widely, moving up the food-chain and causing mercury contamination
across the region. Small-scale gold miners mix the soil with mercury,
creating a gold amalgam, which is then heated in gold shops, a process
that releases toxic vapors into the air. As a result, merchants and
family members in the communities where the gold and mercury are sold
experience intoxication in the form of mercury contamination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqaHHbxj-Co
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