An environmental disaster is developing in the Tapajós River basin, in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, due to the mercury used by 'garimpeiros' (informal miners) to extract gold from the ore. “We found fish with 40 times the level of mercury allowed by the World Health Organization,” Zuleica Castillos, environmental risk expert from the Mining Technology Center (CETEM), told Tierramérica. People and plants also presented high levels of contamination, according to a recent study in two communities of the Tapajós mining reserve, which extends across 23,000 square km.

Mercury ingestion through fish consumption results in irreversible symptoms in the babies of contaminated mothers, said Castillos.

CETEM will provide training for the garimpeiros on the risks of mercury and how to prevent them, as part of the Global Mercury Project, promoted in several countries by the United Nations.