Claudia Vega

It's easy to evaporate.

You don't have to heat it.

It goes to the air, and it can be transported, like, long distance.

This happens mainly in the tropics and is the biggest anthropogenic source of mercury in the planet.

Around 1,400 tons of mercury annually is released to the environment because of artisanal gold mining.

It's an international concern, and it's not because it harms just the place where it's used.

For example, there are even very high levels of mercury in the whales, in the beluga whales in the Arctic.

In Madre de Dios, about 130,000 hectares has been deforested because of artisanal gold mining.

It is big operation, like you can see like huge areas of rainforest just deforested.

It looked like a desert with mining ponds.

There are like artificial lakes and in the middle of a lot of desert.

There's no tree, there's no animals.

It looks like the moon, kind of, because it's just, there's no vegetation.

Mercury is an element.

We cannot destroy it.

It's a potent neurotoxin.

It can affect the neural system.

Also can give you headaches, can give you problem of memory.

It can give you insomnia.

It can harm children during pregnancy.