Bolivia announces two standards to protect health from mercury contamination

The government of bolivian announced this Monday that it is drawing up two rules to protect the health human contamination by mercury generated by gold mining activities that is affecting above all some populations natives in the country.

The announcement was made at a joint press conference offered by the Ministers of Health, María Renée Castro, of the Environment and Water, Rubén Méndez, and of Mining, Marcelino Quispe, days after a police operation against illegal mining in the region. Beni Amazon.

The rules are the “Mercury and Health Plan” and the “Technical Guide for Clinical Diagnosis, Treatment and Surveillance of Mercury Poisoning in Bolivia,” Castro said.

According to the minister, there is already a draft of the plan, which was worked on with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Bolivian toxicologists.

Your goal is “establish strategic lines to guide the actions of the health sector to reduce the risks and effects resulting from exposure to mercury in the Bolivian population”he pointed.

The document has five strategic lines, including risk assessment and management in the exposed population and the strengthening of the health system to serve these sectors, he said.

A third line is “risk communication, information and education” and the fourth is “reduction, elimination and management of products with added mercury”.

The fifth axis is the “management and intersectoral regulatory framework of chemical substances”, within which it is planned to establish an “inter-ministerial table” about this problem.

The guide is under review and both documents are expected to be ready by the first week of August.

Other actions

Castro announced that this Wednesday a “intervention” in indigenous communities in the Cochabamba and Santa Cruz regions to collect information on mining contamination in those areas, given the concern expressed in particular by the Central de Pueblos Indígenas de La Paz (Cpilap).

Cpilap released a study last month that revealed high levels of mercury found in the hair of people from 36 indigenous communities affected by mining and the consumption of contaminated fish.

The communities where the research was carried out live near the banks of the Amazon basin of the Beni River and its tributaries, such as the Tuichi, Quiquibey, Tequeje and Madre de Dios rivers, which also overlap important protected areas in the country.

In January the authorities announced two other projects to manage the use of mercury in mining, which have not yet been shared with the communities.

Last Friday, the Bolivian Police carried out an operation in two communities near the Madre de Dios River in Beni, in which 57 people were arrested and more than 27 dredges were destroyed.

The arrests provoked a protest in the Benian municipality of Riberalta, whose residents assure that those apprehended are mere workers of authorized mining cooperatives, although the Government maintains that their activity was illegal.

Minister Méndez recalled that a decree approved in June to regulate the use of mercury establishes, among other things, the registry of importers and exporters of this element and the authorizations for its commercialization in the country.

In turn, the Minister of Mining mentioned that the latest contracts between the State and mining operators include preliminary agreements so that mercury is not used in these operations.

Source: EFE