Long-running concerns about the environmental effects of gold-mining in the Peruvian Amazon came to a head last week. Peru’s government declared a 60-day public-health emergency on 23 May in an attempt to address the problem of mercury pollution caused by unregulated gold-mining along the Madre de Dios River.
Health-care and emergency workers will this week begin providing medical and food aid for 25 affected villages, after a flurry of studies showed high levels of mercury in people, fish and sediments in the Madre de Dios region. The government estimates that some 48,000 people across 85,301 square kilometres have been affected.
“We now know with certainty what the source of the exposure is,” says Peru’s deputy health minister, Percy Minaya. “We are not going to solve this in two months, or even in a year, but the Health Ministry has to start.” Symptoms of mercury poisoning include vomiting and diarrhoea. Extreme cases can lead to brain or kidney damage.
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