Mercury Poisoning

'In that direction,' the Cat said, 'lives a hatter: and in That direction, lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.' (Lewis Carroll, 1865) With those lines the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland introduces us to a victim of mercury poisoning. The term mad as a hatter was very common in Carroll’s day because of the use of mercury in the making of hats. Once it was understood that mercury was highly toxic, it was no longer used in the making of hats. The damage had already been done. Hatters would suffer from “hatter’s shakes”, a form of nerve damage with symptoms not unlike Parkinson’s disease. Even today it is still called “Mad Hatters Syndrome”. (Martin, 2012) Hats are now formed and blocked using hot water and steam. (Rand's Custom Hats, 2012) Mercury contamination is still a real threat even though hatters no longer use the metal. The first recorded account of mercury poisoning was in 50 B.C. Today, scientist recognize mercury to be a neurotoxin and that high levels of exposure can lead to serious illness and even death. Since the 1950’s and 60’s, scientific evidence has pointed to mercury or anthropogenic emissions as having widespread impacts on the environment and human health. For instance, in 1956 methylmercury poisoning was officially discovered in a Japanese community near a polyvinyl chloride plastics plant that has been dumping untreated liquid waste containing methyl mercury chloride into Minamata Bay and Shiranui Sea. The mercury got into the bay’s sediment and became absorbed by the marine plants and animals, contaminating the entire ecosystem. The surrounding bay provided fish and seafood as part of the local diet. Thirty-nine years later, over 2200 people had officially been diagnosed with methylmercury poisoning now named Minamata disease and over 1000 had died. (Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, 2012) But we do not have to go back to 1956 to find statics like this. In 1971 and 1972, mercury poisoning occurred on a massive scale in Iraq when the population accidentally ate bread made from seed grain that had been treated with a mercury-based pesticide. 6000 people were diagnosed with mercury poisoning, 500 proved fatal. These are just two instances that prove that strict government control is needed where mercury is concerned. Our food supplies are contaminated as well. Bioaccumulation or the mercury, in this case, becomes concentrated in the body and increases as it goes up the food chain. By the time it arrives on our tables, certain fishes could very well be toxic. The severity of the mercury poisoning depends on the concentration and route of exposure as well as the form of the element. Elemental mercury exposure can result in effects on the nervous system including tremor, memory loss and headaches. Other symptoms would include weight loss, bronchitis, fatigue, gingivitis, gastrointestinal problems, excitability, thyroid enlargement, an unstable pulse and toxicity to the kidneys. Methylmercury poisoning can cause tingling of the skin, numbness, lack of coordination, tremor, tunnel vision, loss of hearing, slurred speech, skin rashes, abnormal behavior, intellectual impairment, coma and possible death depending on the amount of exposure. Prenatal exposure has resulted in impaired development to the central nervous system, retarded motor skills, slow development verbally, hearing impairment, lower intelligence and behavior problems. As a people, for the sake of our health and the health of the next generation, we must either use these metals responsibly or find a different method of extracting gold, lighting our homes, measuring the air pressure and taking our temperature. Mercury toxicity is a real problem and ignoring it is not going to make it go away. The more we use these heavy metals in industry, the more is put into our food supply. We have to face the fact that we need to stop polluting our rivers and oceans with mercury by products before we kill ourselves. Carroll, L. (1865). Alice's adventures in wonderland. London:
Martin, G. (2012, April 26). The phrase finder-as mad as a hatter. Retrieved from http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/mad-as-a-hatter.html

Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. (2012, April 12). Mercury education & reduction campaign-mercury facts. Retrieved from http://www.mercvt.org/facts/index.htm

Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. (2012, April 12). Mercury education & reduction campaign-mercury toxicity. Retrieved from http://www.mercvt.org/fish/toxicity.htm