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Gulf War Illness (GWI), which affects approximately 250,000 U.S. veterans, has been found to significantly reduce the ability of white blood cells to make energy and creates a measurable biochemical difference in veterans who have the disease. The finding comes from a physician who noticed GWI symptoms paralleled those of mitochondrial diseases. Analysis revealed significantly lower levels of extracellular acidification and oxygen consumption in the white blood cells of veterans with GWI.

A new study on the impacts of prenatal exposure to toxic metals linked to artisanal gold mining and other sources in Madre de Dios, Peru, finds that mercury has no direct effect on a newborn’s birth weight or gestational age. It’s a different story, though, for lead, which may also be released by mining operations but more likely is consumed when people eat wild game that inadvertently still contains small bullet fragments.  

Malaria control programs in Amazonian Peru helped reduce the incidence of the deadly parasitic disease by 78 percent. That is, until the programs ceased to operate. Within four years of the programs being de-funded, malaria rates where right back where they started. The rebound was driven not only by the removal of prevention programs, but also by climate change. Average temperatures in Peru have risen a half-degree Centigrade in the last 20 years.

DURHAM, N.C. – If you had to guess which part of the world has the highest levels of atmospheric mercury pollution, you probably wouldn’t pick a patch of pristine Amazonian rainforest. Yet, that’s exactly where they are. In a new study appearing Jan. 28 in the journal Nature Communications, an international team of researchers show that illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon is causing exceptionally high levels of atmospheric mercury pollution in the nearby Los Amigos Biological Station.