poured into a slurey with tiny flecks of gold, the e mercury binds to them, making them easa to retrieve>> mercury poisoningng affects the humaman body by affffecting nervous system. when you have high levels of mercury that are in t the blood hahair, or urinene which are th major bioindicacators, it indicatetes there isis going to an effect on t the brarain, peo have lower i.q. levels. they have balance issues, aggressiveness issues. they have problems with heararing, with sight, with taste. much of the mercury that's used in the process of concentrating that gold is lost, dumped into the rivers and lakes of the area that you have the mining. mercury has the unusual ability of concentrating and magnifying. and as it moves up the food chain as one animal eats another, in this case fish, it concentrates and accumulates. they have concentrations that are millions or tens of millions of times higher than the water that they live in. it's a perfect mechanism to be able to concentrate it in a form that affects the next consumer, and in many cases hose are people. the carnenegie insnstitution