Brazilian researchers funded by the World Bank have begun conducting health and environmental studies aimed at protecting Amazon communities and the environment from mercury contamination caused by gold mining in the region. Mercury pollution became a problem in the Amazon in the 1950s, when freelance miners, called garimpeiros, began doing sluice-box mining for alluvial gold in eastern Amazon rivers, using mercury to remove impurities. Although this mercury use peaked in the 1980s during a period of intensive mining, only now has the government begun addressing the adverse effects on river-dwelling communities. The Mineral Technology Center (Cetem), a research arm of Brazil’s Science and Technology Ministry, last month started environmental studies in two mining communities on the Tapajós River, 40 miles from the eastern... [Log in to read more]