Prosecutors from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) working against illegal gold mining in the Amazon region opened an investigation this Wednesday into online mercury sales through Mercado Livre, the largest e-commerce platform in Latin America.
The MPF recommended that Mercado Livre prohibit mercury advertisements on its platform or inform the authorities who is placing them, establishing better controls over the trade of what it called “an extremely dangerous pollutant”.
Miners in the Amazon use liquid mercury to bind gold particles together and separate them from other ores and dirt in excavations in the rainforest.
Mercury pollutes rivers and poisons fish, a staple food for indigenous communities in the Amazon, where studies show women and children with dangerously high levels of mercury in their blood.
Preventing the sale of mercury, along with fuel supply and financing, is part of the federal government's crackdown on illegal gold mining in the Amazon, which has increased in recent years.
“The Mercado Livre sales platform has been used indiscriminately to trade liquid mercury, without any control over the origin of the material and the parties involved in the transactions”, stated a recommendation from the Attorney General’s Office in Amazonas.
Mercado Livre said it was available to the authorities to provide clarification on its work to combat the sale of prohibited products. “Once identified, such ads are deleted and the seller is notified and may be banned from the platform,” Mercado Livre said in a statement.
Mercury is a controlled substance in Brazil and its sale without registration of origin and use is illegal. Brazil does not produce mercury, which needs to be imported, and illegal purchases are made online on platforms such as Mercado Livre.
Mercury poisoning can cause serious neurological damage and malformation in babies. A 2019 study led by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) found the presence of mercury in 56% of Yanomami women and children in the Maturacá region, in the Amazon.
Brazil is a signatory to the Minamata Convention, an international treaty to protect human health and the environment, enacted after a devastating case of mercury poisoning in Japan.
Source: CNN Brasil
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