Adobe Homes in Peru's Andes Tell Centuries-Old Toxic Tale
Adobe Homes in Peru's Andes Tell Centuries-Old Toxic Tale
The mud used to make adobe homes soaked up centuries of mercury emissions and scientists are trying to determine if the walls pose a health hazard
By Barbara Fraser and Environmental Health News
HUANCAVELICA, Peru – Sonia Salazar’s house, like most in her neighborhood, is built of adobe bricks made from mud that soaked up centuries of emissions from mercury smelters.
Now scientists are trying to determine whether those houses – in the shadow of a hill that once held the hemisphere’s largest mercury mine – pose a health hazard to their inhabitants.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, mercury furnaces blasted day and night around this town high in the Andes Mountains. Eventually the town expanded over smelter sites and waste piles.
The researchers already have found high levels of mercury contaminating the soil as well as adobe walls, dirt floors and the air inside some houses. They are now analyzing people’s hair to measure their mercury exposure.
More:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=adobe-homes-in-perus-andes-tell-centuries-old-toxic-tale
