“Mining exposes Indigenous women in Latin America to high mercury levels”, 01 July 2021

...A recent investigation has found dangerously high levels of mercury among women from different Indigenous communities in four Latin American countries. This chemical element is a neurotoxic substance that presents a severe threat to both women’s health and that of fetuses. The International Pollutant Elimination Network (IPEN) and the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) analyzed the levels of mercury present among women in Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia living near areas where gold mining is carried out using mercury. The researchers took hair samples from 1631 women of childbearing age (18 to 44 years)...They found that 58.8% of them exceeded the threshold established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of 1 part per million (1 ppm), a level at which harmful effects begin to occur in the development of fetuses, and that 68.8% of the women exceeded the level of 0.58 ppm, the lowest concentration in which there are recognizable negative impacts on the fetus. According to the report, “Mercury Exposure of Women in Four Latin American Gold Mining Countries,” women from the Bolivian communities of Eyiyo Quibo (in the country’s northwest) and Portachuelo (center) had the highest levels of mercury, with an average of 7.58 ppm...What these communities have in common is a diet based mainly on fish caught in rivers that are in contact with mines where gold is extracted...According to Lee Bell, IPEN’s policy adviser for mercury and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs)...[:]...“If their food sources are contaminated, they have no alternative but to eat them, increasing their body burden of mercury. They don’t have easy access to shops or have money to buy other types of food. They also have minimal medical assistance, and this combination makes them very vulnerable compared to other populations”...