Illegal mines dump an estimated 30 to 40 tons of mercury into the region's rivers every year, contaminating them and their fish, according to the Peruvian government.
A Stanford University study found that the region's indigenous people had up to five times the internationally accepted level of mercury in their bodies.
"It's an extraction economy here. People survive on what they remove from nature," said Eduardo Salhuana, the head of the Madre de Dios Miners' Federation.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/gold-rush-an-ecological-disaster-for-peruvian-amazon/articleshow/45304541.cms
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