"Many women end up losing their children," says Alessandra Korap, a community leader of the Munduruku people from the Brazilian Amazon.

"Either they can't get pregnant, or they lose their [foetus] over time.

"So, women are afraid of getting pregnant."

For centuries, the indigenous Munduruku have lived in an area across what is now the states of Amazonas and Para in northern Brazil, especially around the Tapajos River.

But in recent decades, villagers had been plagued by curious symptoms that they didn't realise could be related: children unable to lift their heads, adults unable to walk any more, muscle tremors, memory loss, fading hearing and vision, miscarriages.

Now they are finally closing in on the cause.

The Tapajos river, their lifeblood, is laced with highly toxic mercury.

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