Mercury exposures in informal gold miners and relatives in southern Peru

Subjects working in or living near informal gold mining and processing in southern Peru were studied to determine mercury exposures from two tasks: amalgamation and amalgam smelting. The authors collected 17 airborne and 41 urinary mercury levels. The mean urinary levels were 728 (range: 321-1662) and 113 (45-197) microg/L for working in smelters and living near smelters, respectively. A third group working in amalgamation had a mean 18 microg/L (range 8-37). People living in the mining town but with no mining activities had 8 microg/L (5-10), while a control group outside the town had 4 microg/L (2-6). Mean airborne mercury exposure was 2423 microg/m3 (range 530-4430) during smelting, 30.5 microg/m3 (12-55) during amalgamation, and 12 microg/m3 (3-23) in the mining town. Smelters are highly contaminated with mercury, as are the people living around smelters.