What are the potential effects of mercury on human health?
Because the body can naturally eliminate mercury, occasional exposure to relatively small amounts of mercury is believed to have no effect on human health. Exposure to large amounts of mercury—either from eating methylmercury or breathing elemental mercury—can cause kidney, brain, and nerve damage or even death. It can also affect the unborn babies of pregnant women. Our knowledge of how large amounts of methylmercury can affect people’s health comes from two accidental poisoning incidents—one in Japan in the 1950s and another in Iraq in the 1970s—where people ate massive amounts of methylmercury. In Iraq, researchers observed that it took less methylmercury to affect babies developing in the womb than to affect adults. For this reason, it is a public health goal to limit methylmercury exposure especially for women of childbearing age. Methylmercury apparently does not cause cancer, based on long-term observations of the people exposed in Japan and Iraq. • How likely is it that utility
