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The environmental mercury pollution due to gold mining in the Amazonian region has been become a matter of world-wide concern in recent years. To assess the extent of mercury contamination and its health effects, the collaborative study with Federal University of Rio de Janeiro has been undertaken mainly in the Tapajos river basin where can be considered the oldest and most productive gold mining area in the Amazon. Human hair, blood and urine, as well as fish samples were collected from gold mining areas and fishing villages, and analyzed for total mercury and methylmercury with new methods recently developed in our laboratory.
The results to date showed that the inhabitant of fishing villages near main gold mining area were more exposed to methylmercury than those far from gold mines. While, the levels of methylmercury in hair from people working in the goldfields and goldshop were much low, and it was found that these hair samples were mainly contaminated with mercury in inorganic form. From these data together with fish mercury analysis, the mechanisms of mercury contamination in the study area are discussed.
Mercury pollution, Amazon, Methylmercury, Gold mining, River system