"Peru's children hit by metal poisoning", 5 September 2018

Wilma Tovalino and Marcos Castaneda live by a mine in Cerro de Pasco, a Peruvian city high in the Andes mountains.Their daughter began to complain of pain in her feet, so they took her to the local clinic... She had 19.8 micro-grammes per decilitre of lead in her blood. Her parents believe that pollution from the mine is to blame...

The government of Peru has declared a "health state of emergency" in 12 districts of Pasco because dangerously high levels of lead, arsenic, aluminium, and manganese were found in local water. Lead, arsenic and mercury were also present in the soil...

The regional health authority of Pasco says that 20% of the people it surveyed had more than 10 micro-grammes per decilitre of lead in their blood, a level it regards as unsafe. The World Health Organization says that no amount of lead in blood can be regarded as safe...

The health authority says the causes of the illnesses are mixed: in this mining area, there are naturally occurring metals in the soils. Poor sanitation is another factor. However, Maruja Silvia, is convinced that mining plays an important par. "It's certain that the problem for a long time has been mining activity," she says...

The main mine in Cerro de Pasco, which yields silver, zinc and lead, is run by the Peruvian company Volcan. The company's chief executive, Ignacio Rosado, says Volcan is now extracting metals only from existing stockpiles in Cerro de Pasco and is no longer mining new metal from the pit. It constantly monitors the air, soil and water quality and is confident no contamination is coming from Volcan's operations, he says.

Glencore, the Anglo-Swiss mining giant, bought a majority of shares in Volcan last year. In a statement, Glencore said it had been working closely with Volcan's management team to develop their environmental management programmes to align with Glencore's health safety and environment compliance programmes and wider best practice standards...