More than 100 people have been made ill by the spillage of a toxic copper concentrate produced at one of the country's biggest mines.
The Ancash state regional health office said 140 people were treated for "irritative symptoms caused by the inhalation of toxins" after a pipeline carrying the concentrate under high pressure burst open in their community.
Most of the injured had joined in efforts to prevent liquid copper slurry from reaching a nearby river after the pipeline linking the Antamina copper mine to the coast ruptured last week in the village of Santa Rosa de Cajacay, said the community's president, Hilario Moran.
"Without taking into account the consequences, we pitched in to help," Mr Moran said.
The people used absorbent fabric provided by the mine but were not given gloves or protective masks, said Antonio Mendoza, the mine's environmental director. Shortly afterwards, people became ill, vomiting, suffering headaches and nosebleeds.
"That's unethical and irresponsible and they should know better," Greg Moller, a professor of environmental chemistry and toxicology at the University of Idaho-Washington State University, said of the mining company's...
↧