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cury in the human body had never been
proved hannf11l.
Of course, neither had
low levels been proved harmless. Stud–
ies just had not been made.
Now, after cataloging symptoms of
mercury poisoned individuals, sorne
doctors have a hunch that wards of
mental hospitals and cases of premature
senility might be fruitful fields for
investigation. The symptoms exhibited
among these people are the
SAME
as
those exhibited in cases of known mer–
cury poisoning.
Behind the Scenes
Few were aware that mercurial dis–
charge into the environment
had airead)'
been going on
for decades - and, as a
cesult of new technologies, in huge
quantities. Little did anyone realize how
dangerous mercury dumping would
prove Jater.
Robert
Meyer
In preparing this article, we talked
with scientists who are gravely con–
cerned about the global ecosystem. We
wondered if the news media was over–
emphasizing - sensationalizing - this
recent mercury scare. W
e
wondered if
the major news sources were blowing
up this problem out of proportion to
other pollution problems.
One scientist working directly on the
mercury pollution problem summarized
his and sorne of his colleagues' thoughts
by saying, "The threat of mercury
pollution - and other hcavy metals
such as cadmium, lead, zinc, beryllium,
vanadium and others - is so great sci–
entists themselvcs don't even know the
long-lasting effects.
This
problem
can't
be blown up too big.
lts effects are
global!"
You may wonder how mercury
25
pollution can be of such global signifi–
cance, when so few products we nor–
mally use contain mercury. Namely,
thermometers, "sun" lamps for indoor
sunbathers, and ccctain battcries for
small radios. Surely these few products
alone cannot be the source of such mas–
sive spread of mercury into the envi–
conment. They are not!
Mercury in Industry
By far the largest user of mcrcury is
industry. Sorne 26% of the 78,000
flasks of mercury and mercury com–
pounds used in the United States annu–
ally are "consumed" by the chlorine and
caustic soda (lye) industry. Actual!y,
the mercury used is a catalyst and not a
product itself. During the electrolytic
process of converting brine (salt
water) into chlorine and lye, mercury is
used as an electrical conductor, which
combines with sodium from the salt
solution. Later the sodium-meccury
"amalgam" is separated, with the addi–
tion of water, thus forming lye and
freeing the mercury foc re-use.
In theory, no mercury is used up. In
actual practice, howcver, small amounts
of mcrcury are lost throughout this
process, by vaporization, leakage and
accidental spills. We suffer from the
basic technological inability
to climinate
the loss of mercury
at a low cost.
For
every ton of chlorine gas produced, a
half pound of mercury is "lost" into the
environment. "Lost" is a poor choice of
words, however, smce one of the most
fundamental laws of ecology is that
"everything has to
go
somewhere."
Total United States mercury produc–
tion is sorne 6,000,000 pounds each
year, and about one fifth of this escapes
into the environment in the form of
waste discharge. Until recent govern–
ment crackdowns, sorne individual
chlorine-lye plants were losing 200
pounds of mercury into nearby water–
ways every operating day. Coal-burning
power plants in the United $tates alone
may be putting up to
l50
tons of
mercury vapor into the skics every