The damage from mercury pollution

In the Newscientist.com (1994) article, “Midas touch could end Amazon’s pollution” the author said that gold businessmen gathered a lot of gold from deposits of the River Amazon using the mercury which captures the gold. However, about 1200 tons of mercury flew to the local river and made people get a disease like mental retardation and miscarriage. And people who lived near that river and ate the fish from the river accumulated the mercury, and they are in a dangerous condition. To prevent discharging the mercury, consultants of the Imperial College designed two devices. One uses the gravity trap in which slats are made in layers and the mercury is deposited in those. The other preventsmercury from becoming vapor. When the gold is separated from mercury, the mercury goes into the air. So, the device makes the mercury concentrated and liquid.

The mercury causes potential damage. So we should know what kind of problem mercury makes and then we should try to prevent the discharging of the mercury.

First, the mercury damages the ecosystem. For example, in the 1900s, the Minamata-Bay of Japan experienced a situation in which the water turned to black because the crab and fish were addicted to the mercury and died. Besides, the animal like crow and cat ate the fish which is addicted the mercury. And then they went mad and died. Like this situation, the ecosystem connects its residents to each other. So, we should care about the food chain. Flowing mercury kills the ecosystem

Second, the mercury makes pregnant women easily abort. This situation occurs like the food chain. The women who becomes pregnant take the mercury; the mercury affects on the unbornbabies. The unbornbabies aren’t complete and they are so weak that they can easily die from the mercury. If the pregnant women bear the baby, the possibility of bearing a deformed child is high.

Finally, the mercury makes a central nerve problem. The mercury that goes to the brain kills the brain cells. If the situation occurs for a long time, the brain can’t work. And the children can’t develop their language, and then they have problem with social skill because of language trouble. People can get acquired quadriplegia and weakened muscles.

In conclusion, the mercury harms the ecosystem because the addicted animal has disease, and it makes a pregnant woman abort, as the unbornbabies is made weak. The mercury makes people have a central nerve problem, and then people get an acquired disease.

Reference

Coghlan, A. (1994, March 12). Midas touch could end Amazon’s pollution. Newscientist.com. Retrieved October 23, 2007, from http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg14119161.500&print=true