Mercury: Measuring and Managing the Risk

Abstract

The authors first review the history of acute mercury poisoning, esp. the 1950--1960s Minamata, Japan fishing village episode; the Ontario, Canada contaminated streams in the early 1970s; and the Iraq incident in 1971--1972 when some 500 people died after eating homemade bread made with wheat contaminated by a methyl mercury fungicide. Afterwards, the two principal pathways of mercury release from human activities are discussed; release from consumer products and manufacturing, and release from fuels and minerals as they are burned or processed at high temperature. Though society has, by and large, controlled acute mercury poisoning episodes caused by contaminated food, the hazard of chronic airborne mercury pollution remains. The discussion noted at least three broad reasons for this evaluation: (1) control of acute exposures has not reduced (2) humanly produced air-borne mercury levels and a comparison of these with natural flux and with other toxic metals serve as a warning that mercury is intrinsically a high-hazard materal; (3) inadequate exposure-response information prevents a clear-cut evaluation of the hazard. However, there are a number of highly plausible actions that can be taken to cope with the problem of airborne mercury pollution, including: reduction of humanly produced mercury vapor levels in themore » air through recycling and substitution; restriction of exposure of affected individuals in localized hot spots; and further efforts to reduce mercury levels in industrial air. Failing this, the exposure of affected individuals should be restricted.« less