AP documents mercury’s long trail of damage from Mexico to the Amazon

By Teresa de Miguel, Megan Janetsky and Steven Grattan

From a network of caves dug into the Mexican mountains, the pink dolphins swimming in the Amazon are more than 2,500 miles away, and The Associated Press showed how toxic mercury is flowing from one to the other — all while poisoning people on the way.

It’s the result of a rush for gold, at record prices on worries about the global economy. That in turn is sending up the price of mercury, a key tool used by illegal gold miners in the Amazon. Mercury’s price has climbed so high that miners in San Joaquin, Mexico, are willing to risk their health to get it.

Videojournalist Teresa de Miguel and Central America reporter Megan Janetsky spent weeks getting access to these mercury mines. They eventually won miners’ trust and got many to agree to be interviewed on camera and photographed. No other media outlets have gotten such access, as the mines have operated illegally while international authorities seek to phase them out.

With that, de Miguel descended into the mines with the help of a rope and only minimal safety equipment. The team spent hours filming and photographing a process that heats rock until mercury evaporates, releasing toxic vapor into the air.

The video and Fernando Llano’s pictures, alongside text by Janetsky and de Miguel, told the story of miners with little economic opportunity other than the hazardous work of chasing the mercury. And it captured the damage being done to the health of the miners and their families, as well as the area surrounding the mines.

A continent away, climate reporter Steven Grattan detailed the other end of the chain, showing how mercury is seeping into the bodies of dolphins and humans. Grattan, photographer Fernando Vergara and freelance videojournalist Cesar Olmos accompanied a conservation group in Colombia as they captured dolphins in the Amazon for medical tests and tissue samples.

Judges lauded the stunning visuals and the multimedia offerings of the package, showing both where the mercury comes out of the ground and where it ends up in dolphins’ bloodstreams. They also cited the work necessary to win miners’ trust to be able to show such images.

For delivering a comprehensive and visually rich look at the damage created by humans’ lust for money, Teresa de Miguel, Megan Janetsky and Steven Grattan win this week’s Best of AP — First Winner.