Mercury levels in the area of Madre de Dios are widely known to be dangerous. Yet the locals are seemingly unable to make changes to safe mining practices.
When sediment containing mercury is dumped in the rivers it is absorbed into the ecosystem as an organic compound, Methylmercury. When digested by the fish, people are exposed to mercury levels up to one million times higher than that in the water the fish came from. The World Health Organization estimates that children native to the area have mercury levels five-times that considered to be safe. Whilst those in urban areas near to polluted areas have levels twice as high.
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