How U.S. demand for gold jewelry and bullion is poisoning children in the Amazon

The miners rely on toxic mercury to isolate and bind small flakes of gold into larger chunks that can be sold. But there’s a dangerous byproduct of the process. According to the Artisanal Gold Council, a Canadian nonprofit that works with local miners and policymakers to reduce toxic emissions, more than 90 tons of mercury every year ends up in the air, rivers and streams of the Madre de Dios region of Peru, often harming communities far removed from the mines.
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