Mercury Exposure of Women in Two Latin American Gold Mining Countries

Mercury contamination continues to undermine the rights to life, health and a clean, healthy and sustainable environment of Indigenous peoples, workers, children and local communities around the world. By far, the main contributor to mercury pollution globally is the use of mercury in small-scale gold mining. It is time to prohibit the trade in, and use of, mercury for the sake of our health and the health of our planet. 

As this latest IPEN study exposes, Indigenous women in Peru and Nicaragua that live where small-scale gold mining takes place have high levels of mercury in their bodies. This has troubling consequences for them, and if they become pregnant, they can result in potentially lifelong cognitive deficits and/or physical malformations for their children. 

The human rights and environmental injustices caused by mercury use in small-scale gold mining have been widely documented. The ongoing allowable use of mercury in small-scale gold mining is compromising the right to clean food sources of millions of people around the world. 

Read the findings in the report, below. You can see the webinar introducing the report here.

Also, see recent reports by IPEN member groups on ASGM and mercury in eight countries here.