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Mercury's Toxic Touch: Public Health Crises in the Amazon Linked to Illegal Gold Mining

Presentation Summary

My presentation was on mercury poisoning in indigenous communities of the Peruvian Amazon caused by illegal goldmining activities. The article was posted on October 02, 2020 on the Anthropology News website, published by the American Anthropological Association. I often use this source for finding current issues in public health considered in anthropological contexts, which of course is my own background.

The article reviews the history of mercury toxicity in the region and describes the population health outcomes for native peoples making a home of this now poisoned environment.  Mercury is an environmental pollutant that can travel far from its emission source, where it can damage human health and the environment. Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) is estimated to be the largest source of global mercury emissions, and occurs in the context of power, race, and gender dynamics in mining communities; as well as a long history of encultured racism linked to colonial expansion and the spread of Spanish language, culture and cognition throughout the Andean and Amazonian world.

As the people of the Peruvian Amazon were getting sick, their culture systems lacked the language to describe such phenomena; having never experienced the kind of health outcomes associated with mercury poison, community cosmologies were left with no explanation for what was happening to their children and other members of their community. The one thing that was clear was it was caused by invasive outsiders, mining the mountaintops and basins of the Andes and Amazon- wherein they have found homes for tens of thousands of years.

Indigenous leaders identified the source of the pollution and rallied support of other native peoples around the world, culminating in a delegation at the United Nations in Switzerland. Two Indigenous representations came from the Madre de Dios region of Peru to attend the Third Conference of the Parties (COP3) to the Minamata Convention on Mercury. After days of deliberation and testimonies from community leaders around the world describing their own experiences and interactions with ASGM-linked toxicity, the outcome was overwhelming in support of their demands to put a check on both legal and illegal mining activities; as well as bring home best practices for public health approaches to reducing the burden of mercury poisoning in vulnerable communities.

 

Image description: The infographic title reads “Facts & Figures ASGM Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining” and overlays an image of a silver pan that someone is holding. Below that there is a line of human figures in blue, purple, and green; the text accompanying the figures reads “10–15 million miners including 4–6 million women and children.” The next line includes a stack of gold bars and text stating “12–15% of world gold supply.” Beside the gold bars is an illustration of a factory that is accompanied by the text “More than 1,400 tons of mercury per year released to the environment. Largest source of mercury pollution in the world. At the bottom of the infographic, there is a map of the world in grey with purple pins that represent the different areas affected. The clusters of pins are located in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, and Central America. The text beside the map reads “over 70 countries affected." Caption: ASGM Facts and Figures. Global Mercury Partnership

Presentation: Mercury's Toxic Touch 


























Sources:

  1. Goldstein R. Mercury's Toxic Touch. Anthropology News. https://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2020/10/02/mercurys-toxic-touch/. Published October 2, 2020. Accessed October 4, 2020.
  2. Who.int. 2020. Mercury And Health. [online] Available at: <https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mercury-and-health> [Accessed 8 October 2020].
  3. Selin, N., Selin, H., Barrett, S. and Goldstein, R., 2020. NSF Award Search: Award#1924148 - CNH2-S: Mercury Pollution And Human-Technical-Environmental Interactions In Artisanal Mining. [online] Nsf.gov. Available at: <https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1924148> [Accessed 8 October 2020].
  4. Mercury.unitar.org. 2020. UNEP-UNITAR Mercury Platform. [online] Available at: <https://mercury.unitar.org/site/document/1272> [Accessed 8 October 2020].

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