Prosecutors from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) investigating illegal gold mining in the Amazon region opened this Wednesday an investigation into online sales of mercury through Mercado Livre, the largest e-commerce platform in Latin America.
The MPF recommended that Mercado Livre ban mercury advertising on its platform or inform the authorities who publish it, establishing better controls on trading in what it called “an extremely dangerous pollutant”.
Miners in the Amazon use liquid mercury to bind gold particles together and separate them from other minerals and dirt in rainforest excavations.
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 supplies 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 was used indiscriminately for the trade of liquid mercury, without any control over the origin of the material and the parties involved in the transactions,” reads a recommendation from the Attorney General of Amazonas.
Mercado Livre said it was available to the authorities to provide clarifications on its work to combat the sale of banned 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 must be imported, and illegal purchases are made online on platforms such as Mercado Livre.
Mercury poisoning can cause serious neurological damage and birth defects in children.
A 2019 study conducted by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) found the presence of mercury in 56% of Yanomami women and children in the Maturacá region of the Amazon.
Brazil is a signatory to the Minamata Convention, an international treaty aimed at protecting human health and the environment, promulgated after a devastating case of mercury poisoning in Japan.
Source: Terra
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