Bodies at Rest: Rousing Officialdom to the Peril of Domestic Mercury Pollution

The chance remark of a Brooklyn junior-high-school science student suggested to his teacher—a medical sociologist by training—a widespread and hitherto unreported magico-religious use of elemental mercury in the home. Interested and concerned, the teacher undertook a preliminary investigation into the nature and geographical distribution of such occult mercury use, and the possible pathology resulting from it. His investigation issued in "the first mention [in the literature] of widespread domestic exposure to mercury vapor."¹ With confirmation of a potentially serious public-health threat, a one-man campaign was begun to alert health authorities and medical scientists to problems posed by this novel form of domestic mercury pollution. The campaign involved calling, writing, and meeting with health and regulatory personnel and with members of the scientific press and the mass media. A detailed log of all contacts was kept. These activist efforts to rouse officialdom produced tangible results: actions by several federal regulatory agencies, numerous state and city health-department investigations, and a federally sponsored clinical research project. The campaign is ultimately the reason why several foreign health agencies have also launched, or are contemplating, similar investigations into the sale and use of mercury for occult purposes, and why there is now, in general, a greatly heightened awareness of the need to monitor and, if necessary, regulate the trade in elemental mercury.