Riverside families in the Amazon change meals as mercury poisons staple fish

A Mongabay Latam database of more than 7,000 human and 5,900 fish mercury samples has mapped contamination along the Madeira River, a major Amazon tributary receiving an estimated 10 to 50 metric tons of mercury annually from illegal gold dredging. Lake Puruzinho residents, despite having no mining nearby, showed mercury levels in hair up to nearly 13 times the WHO safety limit, tied to their consumption of tucunaré fish.

Across 42 studies since 1997, researchers found evidence of mercury exposure in at least 249 Indigenous and riverside communities, with another 702 communities at risk near mining hotspots. In Brazil alone, at least 286 such communities still do not know how much mercury they carry or what danger it poses.

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