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The Maya utilized a lot red paint that they inadvertently poisoned their lakes and waterways with mercury, a brand-new research study discovers.

The issue was cinnabar, a vivid-red mercury-sulfide mineral that can be utilized as the pigment vermilion in red paint. The run-off from the paint can get in waterways, where anaerobic germs then change cinnabar into extremely hazardous methylmercury in the sediments of lakes. In time, the methylmercury builds up to greater levels in the food cycle.

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