A program for the control of indoor pollution by metallic mercury

The objective of this study was to develop an educational program for preve nting metallic mercury emissions due to the burning of mercury-gold amalgam s inside houses. The main participants were adolescents from a school in th e city of Pocone, State of Mato Grosso, The program was developed in five s tages, including discussions of the methods and exhibition of slides showin g people working in activities including the garimpos, planning activities as dramatizations. making posters and preparing a screenplay for the produc tion of a video, discussing how to prevent indoor burning of gold-mercury a malgams, and a final evaluation of the adolescents about what they had lear ned during the program. The evaluation of the impact was done through a com parison of correct answers from a questionnaire before and after the develo pment of the educational activities and by means of a comparison of urinary mercury in school students and a group of residents ( women) at three diff erent times: before the program (2.30 mu g/L), 6 months after (2.90 mu g/L) , and 11 months after (1.49 mu g/L). (C) 2000 Academic Press.