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Mercury pollution threat to global environment

UP the Food Chain

There is a yet more alarming aspect to mercury — "the unknown killer." The story is about two separate types of pollution going hand-in-hand to multiply the deadly effects. Through a process called "organic complexing," mercury released into the waterways is converted to highly toxic methyl-mercury.

Once thought to sink harmlessly to the bottom of streams and lakes, mercury has turned up to be a villain in disguise. It has emerged as pollution's front-line killer. And here too, an understanding of the natural processes in the ecosystem should have warned us long ago not to dump mercury into our air and waterways.

According to some researchers, a particular danger arises where mercury is released in waters already laden with organic matter — a common occurrence in most waterways in which treated or raw sewage is also released.

In such an environment a process called "organic complexing" occurs. Mercury is chemically altered to highly toxic methyl mercury and is introduced into the chain of aquatic life. Bacteria ingest the mercury. Algae eat the bacteria. The algae are then eaten by plankton, which are fed upon by larger plankton. These in turn are eaten by small fish, which are the natural food of larger fish. The fish, then, are eaten by man, at the top of the food chain. At each step up the food chain, mercury is concentrated, so that the top of the pyramid contains the greatest amounts of mercury.

 

"Tainted Tuna" Scare

The tuna scare is serious, but a mere drop in the bucket of potential pollution from mercury in the years ahead.

Only a small percentage of the total tuna sold in the United States had to be banned for food. Other fish species were also affected.

Which species will be next?

Feathers of peregrine falcons and eagle owls in Sweden tested for mercury in 1966 contained 16 to 26 times the mercury in their feathers as those taken before 1940. Museum specimens showed relatively low amounts of mercury. It was about 1940 that mercurial fungicides were introduced into Sweden as a seed preservative in agriculture. The obvious conclusion is that predatory birds taken in subsequent years had eaten smaller life forms which had eaten seeds and grain contaminated with mercury.

 

Where Will It Go?

As more studies are made, more mercury will be found. Chances are, your "clickless" electric light switches are made with mercury as a conductor. Eventually they wear out too, and are disposed of. Where will these and the other products consuming an estimated 3000 tons of mercury annually in the United States go?

Perhaps some will contaminate whales in the Hudson Bay. Here, in 1970, whale meat was seized by the Canadian government because of high mercury levels.

Or — some of this mercury may turn up in pheasants shot in California and British Columbia, or seals living near the Pribilof Islands, or ducks on their annual migration through North Dakota, or sport fish from streams and lakes in 33 states — all of which have reported high mercury levels in 1970.

Over three years ago, Swedish scientists warned us of continued mercury contamination. In February, 1967, an article published in the authoritative Swedish journal Oikos, warned, "Methyl-mercury appears to represent one of the most noxious mercury compounds contaminating our environment."

 

Warnings Unheeded?

This, and earlier warnings from the Japanese mercury disasters should have been a cry of ALARM to Americans, Canadians and other nations to "clean up" or suffer possible dire consequences!

We are now beginning to feel the effects of past technological mistakes. We did not heed the earlier warnings. Now, we live with the scare of getting mercury poisoning from contaminated tuna and other fish.

Will the present scare shock governments, industry, and private citizens to proper action? The present indication is that efforts are being made to cut down the amounts of mercury discharged into the environment by the chemical industry. Yet, industry is not to be singled out as the only chief offender. Coal-and oil-burning utility plants may release far greater amounts of mercury, which occurs naturally in fossil fuels. And nothing short of shutting down these plants is going to "clean up" fossil fuels!

Would the public stand for shutting off electrical power? It is highly doubtful. Affluent societies will not give up their affluence — not willingly. And affluence is measured in terms of energy at the disposal of people — energy harnessed by modern technology. Technology, which by definition is the "application of science," is not necessarily a villain. It's the wrong application of science — wrong technology, which is ecologically unsound. Wrong technology causes pollution. A technology which is firmly rooted in ecological principles and natural laws — its function to serve the overall good of mankind (present and future) — is desperately needed. Short-term profits by industry, agriculture, or other activities do not justify long-term destruction of man's environment.

Technology must be redirected — not necessarily phased out.

Industry is not about to close down its operations, or change them drastically overnight. The public demands its goods and services. And certainly the present economy could not withstand an immediate redirection of ecologically unsound present-day technology.

Therefore, we can only expect continued pollution — with no hope of immediate solutions. You can rest assured — mercury pollution, too, will continue for some time to come.

The question then remains: Can and will technology "clean up" soon enough to avoid disaster?

There's no evidence to prove it can.

It remains a matter of FAITH that technology can and will be able to save us — or we've all had it. “The mercury episode illustrates what can happen when man violates (willfully or ignorantly) the natural laws of the world he lives in," commented biologist Dr. Douglas Winnail. “This is most likely to happen when short-term economic interests (greed) take precedence over long-term ecological interests."

Mercury pollution is a potent indicator of man's woefully misdirected, technology-based way of life. And serious as mercury is, it is only one such indicator. There are other heavy metals which may prove even more disastrous to health than mercury — cadmium, zinc, vanadium, lead, beryllium and thorium among them. The same misdirected technology which supposedly brought us the "good life" may bring more future disasters.

Will consumers and profit-motivated industries who created modern technologies be willing and able to change soon enough?

It's time we seriously asked whether the highly technological, industrialized societies of the world today represent the epitome of civilization, after all.

 

Misguided Technology at Fault

Dr. Barry Commoner recently stated at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meetings, held in Chicago and attended by PLAIN TRUTH staff members, that: "The mercury pollution problem repeats a fault which has been very common in recent technological intrusions on the environment — that they have occurred massively long before the consequences were appreciated."

He stated further: "Thus, in my view, the basic cause of the environmental crisis is the massive introduction . . . in the advanced countries of the world of new technologies . . . which by their very design, are strikingly incompatible with the natural balanced processes that sustain the environmental system."

In recent years, there has been wholesale departure from "natural" products and methods to synthetics. In fact, increased mercury usage, and increased manufacture of synthetic products (plastics, synthetic fibers, chemicals of all kinds) form an interesting parallel, both increasing dramatically since World War II. Technology has gone the route of synthetics to reduce costs, increase overall production, and make greater profits, without considering the environment. Result: effluents from the production of synthetics are taking heavy toll on the basic quality of life — the air we breathe, the water we drink, the "spacious skies" clouded by air pollution, and nerves jangled by noise.

But what is the solution for our world — a world locked into its own deadly technology? There are answers to this bleak, seemingly hopeless situation of technological dilemma, shocking as this assertion may sound.

The words of Dr. Barry Commoner echo the present dilemma facing mankind:

"I believe that we have, as of now, a single decade in which to design the fundamental changes in technology that we must put into effect in the 1980's — if we are to survive." He called the 1970's "a period of grace," and warned that "we must determine now to develop in the next decade, the new means of our salvation."

Mankind is now firmly set on a course which appears irreversible and headed toward repeated crises, scares, and disasters — until one wonders if anything short of disaster will stop the ever-moving technological "Frankenstein" man has created. The mercury crisis is simply one of many indicators of that wrong direction. It is a warning for us to change the way we live on this earth — to change the direction and use of technology — to become more concerned with the quality of life, rather than with the quantity of "things" and the acquisition of profits.

We need to change our basic philosophies — whether we are a producer of goods and services, or a consumer. And we need a new approach — a concerned approach — to other human beings and the world we live in, NOW!

Remember Dr. Barry Commoner's words. He called the decade of the 1970's "a period of grace." Drastic changes need to be made in both technology and basic human attitudes "if we are to survive."