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A Virtuous Cycle in the Amazon: Reducing Mercury Exposure from Fish Consumption Requires Sustainable Agriculture

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Ecohealth Research in Practice

Part of the book series: Insight and Innovation in International Development ((IIID,volume 1))

Abstract

The Brazilian gold rush period, which peaked during the 1980s, was fertile ground for research projects on mercury in the environment and its impacts on humans, especially in the Madeira and Tapajós River basins. These projects either focused on environment, or health, or other disciplines.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.unites.uqam.ca/gmf/caruso/caruso_home.htm. Original proposal presented by Marc Lucotte, Marucia Amorim, and Donna Mergler.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the communities of the lower Tapajós who participated in the Caruso project. We acknowledge the many project investigators of the past 15 years, in particular Marc Lucotte. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Fernando Branches, a cardiologist from Santarem who brought the issue of mercury and health in the Amazonian region to the attention of the world, and Marc Roulet, the biogeochemist who identified deforestation as the source of mercury contamination in this region. IDRC support to Caruso was provided through projects 001300, 003323 and 101416.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biophysics Institute, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Jean Remy Davée Guimarães

  2. Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la biologie, la santé, la société et l’environnement (CINBIOSE), Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Donna Mergler

Authors
  1. Jean Remy Davée Guimarães
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  2. Donna Mergler
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Correspondence to Jean Remy Davée Guimarães .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. IDRC, Ottawa, K1G 3H9, Ontario, Canada

    Dominique F. Charron

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Guimarães, J.R.D., Mergler, D. (2012). A Virtuous Cycle in the Amazon: Reducing Mercury Exposure from Fish Consumption Requires Sustainable Agriculture. In: Charron, D. (eds) Ecohealth Research in Practice. Insight and Innovation in International Development, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0517-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0517-7_10

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