Researchers Paulo Basta and Ana Claudia Vasconcellos, from Fiocruz, presented the technical report of the study on the impact of mercury on protected areas and forest peoples in the Amazon to indigenous people of the Paiter-Suruí people, in the state of Rondônia. The feedback was presented on August 6 in the Lapetanha village, in the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Land, in the municipality of Cacoal. Also as part of sharing the results with the community, ENSP researcher Basta and EPSJV researcher Vasconcellos delivered individual reports with the mercury concentrations identified in hair samples from the 178 research participants.

The study was part of the "Protection of Indigenous and Traditional Peoples of Brazil" project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through WWF. In this initiative, Fiocruz was responsible for Axis 3: "actions to mitigate the effects of mining". The full report "Impact of mercury on protected areas and forest peoples in the Amazon - an integrated health-environment approach: a case study with the Paiter-Suruí people of Rondônia" is available here.

Coordinators of the research group "Environment, Diversity and Health", Basta and Vasconcellos gave a community lecture with general information on the impacts of the presence of illegal gold mining on indigenous lands in the Amazon, and on the harmful effects of mercury contamination on the ecosystem and indigenous peoples. In addition, the researchers advised local health councilors to demand measures from the Vilhena Special Indigenous Sanitary District (DSEI) to notify confirmed cases in the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN).

On the occasion, Vasconcellos and Basta presented the Technical Manual for the Care of Indigenous People Exposed to Mercury in Brazil, a document produced by the Fiocruz research group, in partnership with the Secretariat of Indigenous Health (Sesai), of the Ministry of Health, and with the National Secretariat of Territorial Rights of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. The document was recently launched at a ceremony in Brasília in May. It can be accessed and downloaded for free from the Virtual Library of the Ministry of Health.

At the end of the visit, the researchers made a commitment to offer training for surveillance and monitoring of exposure to mercury, in the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Land, to local health councilors and Paiter-Suruí leaders, with the participation of members of the Multiprofessional Indigenous Health Teams (EMSI) of the Vilhena DSEI. This is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2026.