Environmental Pollution by Mercury and Related Health Concerns: Renotice of a Silent Threat

Abstract

During the 1950s, while Japanese researchers were seeking for the cause of a strange and fatal neurologic disease spread in Minamata city, it seemed ludicrous that an element located in the period 6 and group 12 of the periodic table would be to blame. Mercury in its organic form, i.e. methyl mercury, was released from the wastewater of a chemical company; bio-accumulated in fi sh and shellfi sh, and was subsequently eaten by local inhabitants. Thus, it transformed into an agent for thousands of cases of poisonings that later became known as Minamata disease. Two decades later, another disaster happened in Iraq, where around 1000,000 t of mercury-treated seed grain were mistakenly used for making bread and caused more than 6000 poisonings and 400 deaths (1). Several other stories like this have also been noted elsewhere, but concern regarding this toxic metal has shifted towards its global emission and distribution, which causes it to slowly enter into people’s homes, food and water, consequently affecting human health on a much larger scale