The government should make the counterplan

In the Newscientist.com (1991) article, “Mercury poisoning confirmed among Amazon villagers”, the author said that the residents along the Amazon suffered from mercury contamination. Branches, who is a doctor in Santarem, found out that Amazon villagers are over the limit of mercury safety, because of contaminated fish which live in the Amazon and inhale the mercury. For example, people have two micrograms per gram of hair, but Amazon residents have more than average people. In case of babies, they have three times more than other babies who don’t live in the Amazon. Branches said that as time goes by the patients who have been treated for mercury were increased. The team of Para Federal University, which investigates with Imperial College, also discovered that lots of mercury was thrown by gold miners and the people inhaled the mercury vapor. The gold miners, Brazil said, get the silt and extract the gold using the mercury. After doing that, the leftover silt is dumped by the gold miners. Almost all gold miners are in an area of the Tapajos river, the Madeira, and near Venezuela.

The government should make the counterplan.

First, the government should stop using the mercury. If the mercury is in the ground, it doesn’t matter. However, if the mercury is in the water, the mercury turns into the methyl mercury. The methyl mercury is harmful to our body and the methyl mercury which is in the fish never goes out so, the mercury accumulates more and more. After eating the fish, we have disease or we can die.

Second, the government should establish a limit on gold mining. If there is a limit, the gold miners can use the mercury less than before. Thus, the addiction to the mercury decreases. If the government lets the gold miners do the same, the more
problems will occur.

Finally, the government should make other methods to degrade the mercury. They should in invest making chemicals to stop using mercury. For example, using chlorination can separate the gold from the gold ore. If the chlorination gas is put to the melting gold, we can get the pure gold. In this way, we can find the other methods and we won’t harm the people or the environment.

In conclusion, the government should arrange a limit on gold mining, stop the gold miner’s use of mercury, and find an other method ot extract gold. We should protect the environment and people.

Reference
Homewood, B.(1991, November 09). Mercury poisoning confirmed among Amazon villagers. Newscientist.com. Retrieved October 29, 2007 from http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg13217941.800&print=true