6 If factories used less mercury, less would be put into the water and therefore there would be less poisoning from the fish. .
Although the event in Japan happened in the 1960's, mercury poisoning is still a problem today. In America, 8% of women have higher values of mercury in their blood than is deemed safe by the Environmental Protection Agency.7 This means that a high percentage of women can pass down mercury to their babies, which can then cause "brain damage, mental retardation, incoordination, blindness, seizures, and inability to speak ".8 Thus, using less mercury is also important because it would cause fewer babies to be born with these problems. .
The first step to reducing mercury poisoning is to stop its use in dental practice. Mercury is the main ingredient in dental amalgams, which are the most common kind of cavity fillings.9 Many people in the United States are worried that these fillings are poisoning those who use them, but as Matthew Shulman wrote in an article about mercury in dentistry, "The [American Dental Association] contends that while microscopic amounts of mercury may be excreted into the body from fillings, no study has linked the presence of those amounts with adverse health outcomes ".10 However, even if there are no health problems associated with mercury in dental amalgams, mercury can still be released when fillings are taken out or removed, or when amalgam waste is disposed. Thus, the use of mercury, even in a way that has had no side effects on people using the product, can still effect the environment. There are other options for fillings, so getting rid of mercury in cavity fillings would be a good first step to reduce mercury in the air.
Mercury use is also prevalent in gold mining. Getting rid of it would lead to less mercury in the air, and less direct exposure with humans. Using mercury is the easiest way to mine gold because it's easy and cheap, but this means that many miners breathe in the vapors, and even touch mercury with their bare hands.
