Yanomami crisis: ‘There is no protocol for notifying cases of mercury poisoning’, says DPU report

Gabriel Abreu – Cenarium Magazine

BOA VISTA (RR) – A report delivered by the Public Defender of the Union (DPU), to the federal government, to which CENARIUM MAGAZINE had access this Saturday, 4, showed that, to date, there is no functional protocol with the Single Health System (SUS) for patients diagnosed with mercury poisoning. The Yanomami population in Roraima is going through a humanitarian crisis caused by the invasion of illegal mining in the indigenous land.

“There is currently no functional protocol with the Single Health System (SUS) specifically for reporting cases of mercury poisoning from illegal gold mining in the Amazon, leading to underreporting of cases and, as a result, an absence of protocols for identification and treatment of those affected. Besides this, the political stimulus of recent years and the absence of effective inspection have contributed to the increase in illegality and the advance of mining into new areas”, points out the report.

In the last four years of Bolsonaro’s administration, the Ministry of Health estimates that at least 570 Yanomami children died of preventable causes (lack of medical treatment and prevention) in the region, victims of malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia and mercury contamination. In 2022, there were 99 child deaths.

According to the Boa Vista City Hall, up to this Saturday, 48 Yanomami children are hospitalized in the Santo Antônio Children’s Hospital, seven in Intensive Care Units (ICU). In 2022, the hospital treated 703 Yanomami hospitalizations. The main causes of hospitalization for Yanomami children are acute diarrheal disease, acute gastroenterocolitis, malnutrition, severe malnutrition, pneumonia, snake bites and malaria.

Observatory on Garimpo and its Effects

The DPU created, in July 2022, the National Observatory on Garimpo and Socio-Environmental Effects. With the inspections and technical visits that take place within the scope of the observatory, federal public defenders were on two missions focused on the protection of the Yanomami people (see document below).

According to Federal Public Defender Ronaldo Neto, one of the objectives of the observatory is to dialogue with institutions, civil society and government to promote the defense of the fundamental rights of communities affected, directly and indirectly, by mining.

“In the first moment, we are seeking to unify the response of the Office of the Union Public Defender, opening a channel for receiving complaints”, he explained. “We are going to structure on-site missions in the most affected areas and articulate public policy responses with the local government. There is also the possibility of appealing to the Judiciary so that the victims of mining – that is, the people affected by the contamination of the environment – are duly compensated by those who caused the contamination and by those who had the duty to prevent it from occurring”.

Monitoring

Two teams from the Union Public Defender’s Office (DPU) were in Amazonas and Roraima, between January 24 and 31, with actions focused on the conditions of access to health and water in the localities. The missions were planned before the Ministry of Health declared an emergency situation in public health due to the death of Yanomami children from malnutrition in Roraima.

The DPU questioned the Ministry of Health’s performance in identifying, testing, and assisting populations exposed to mercury contamination. Documents published by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), in 2020, detailed the contamination by mercury of members of the Munduruku and Yanomami peoples, a region with a large amount of illegal mining in the Legal Amazon.

The DPU questioned the measures adopted by the Ministry of Health and the Special Indigenous Health Secretariat (Sesai), as well as information on the existence of protocols for the identification and treatment of those contaminated and the capacity of local health teams in the Amazon region to provide treatment to indigenous and other traditional peoples.

Mercury contamination

In the action, the DPU also notified the Ministries of Mines and Energy (MME) and Health seeking information about the Brazilian government’s actions in the Amazon region. The institution questions the implementation of the Minamata Convention in Brazil, and the work done in the identification and testing of traditional populations exposed to mercury contamination by mining areas.

The letters, signed by the then federal public-general defender Daniel de Macedo Alves Pereira, are a result of the work done by the National Observatory. The Minamata Convention provides for a series of measures to be adopted by the signatory countries, aiming to protect human health and the environment from exposure to mercury, especially the mercury used in mining areas, since for the production of around 10 grams of gold, up to 1 kilogram of mercury is dumped into the environment.

Mercury is considered extremely toxic and harmful to human health, and is hardly eliminated from the ecosystem, being able to contaminate rivers and other animals on a large scale.