A new study conducted by IPEN - an organisation dedicated to protecting children from man-made-toxins — has found that women of childbearing age globally have previously unrecorded high levels of mercury in their systems.
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin which can seriously harm unborn children; and the study (spanning 25 countries) found that there was excessive levels of the toxic metal found in women from Alaska to Chile.
Women in the Asia-Pacific region contained the highest levels of exposure, accredited to countries where mercury is heavily used in gold mining and where fish is a staple of the diet.
Further, industrial pollution can cause toxic mercury levels in the body, with women in Nepal, Nigeria, and the Ukraine largely effected.
Indonesian woman from the coalition of NGOs that produced the study, Yuyun Ismawati, spoke on the findings, saying: “Millions of women and children in communities mining gold with mercury are condemned to a future where mercury impairs the health of adults and damages the developing brains of their offspring. As long as the mercury trade continues, so too will the mercury tragedy.”
