Mercury: A toxic poison
No other metal better illustrates the diversity of effects caused by different chemical species than does mercury. On the basis of chemical speciation, there are three forms of mercury: elemental, inorganic, and organic compounds.
The major source of mercury is the natural degassing of the earth's crust, including land areas, rivers, and the ocean, and this source is estimated to produce on the order of 2700 to 6000 tons per year. The total man made release into the atmosphere is about 2000 to 3000 tons, and it is difficult to assess what quantities of mercury come from human activities and what quantities from natural resources. Run-off into natural bodies of water may contain mercury from both anthropogenic and natural sources, so it is difficult to assess how much released into the atmosphere is from man made or natural sources. Nevertheless, mining, smelting, and industrial discharge have been factors in the environmental contamination in the past. For instance, it is estimated that loss in water effluent from chloralkali plants, one of the largest users of mercury, has been reduced to 99% in recent years. Industrial activities not directly employing mercury or mercury products give rise to substantial quantities of this metal. Fossil fuel may contain as much as 1 ppm of mercury, and it is estimated that about 5000 tons of mercury per year may be emitted from burning coal, natural gas, and from the refining of petroleum products. Calculations based on the mercury content of the Greenland ice cap show an increase from the year 1900 to the present and suggest that the increment is related both to an increase in background levels of mercury in rainwater and to man made r...
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...uring the McCarthy hearings, people were prosecuted for being communists even without valid proof just as in the two witchcraft crazes, people were prosecuted for being witches without valid proof. All three were caused mainly of fear of the so-called evil.
One out of every six children under the age of six are suffering from health disorders due to the poisonous metal, lead. Lead is a natural occurring bluish-gray metal found in the earth's crust. It has no taste or smell. Lead can easily be found in all parts of our environment today. Most of it comes from mining, manufacturing, and the burning of fossil fuels. In the United States lead poison has increased because of the lack of knowledge in our society. Lead is released into the environment by industries, the burning of fossil fuels or wastes.
Interest and debate have greatly increased over the Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) plea since the 1970s. The legal definition of insanity as understood by Dunn, Cowan, and Downs (2006) is, “a person is thought insane if he or she is incapable of knowing or understanding the nature and quality of his or her act of distinguishing right from wrong at the time of the commission of the offense.” There are several investigations needed in the area of NGRIs plea, especially in the area of gender. Research on gender is needed because of its potential to influence the presentation and formation of the rule of law. Throughout many cultures the general assumption is that men are significantly more aggressive than women, whereas women often are characterized by passive and communal traits (Yourstone, 2007 ). Public opinion on insanity cases is often viewed negatively. Furthermore, the public often believe that insanity defendants go free after they are found NGRI. However, according to Dunn et al., (2006), “the NGRI sits at the low end of the ultimate outcome measure, whereas the death penalty sits at the high end.” The public in general view a mentally ill person as dangerous. The main reason for this is the media’s inaccurate perceptions of the mentally ill as violent (Breheney, 2007). Another problem is the public generally overestimates the insanity defense success rate. According to Breheney et al., (2007), “There are nine insanity pleas for every 1,000 felony cases of which 26% (about two) are successful.” However, the argument has been that insanity defenses are used as a means of escaping severe penalties in the most serious of crimes. Several questions arise from this topic in both psychology and law. It is important f...
Dental amalgam is a commonly used restorative material that contains mercury and is of particular concern due to the potential detrimental effects it has on both the environment and humans (Chin et al, 2000). Some of the generated amalgam-contaminated sludge is released into the sewage system. Extracted or missing teeth that contain amalgam fillings as well as amalgam-contaminated waste, like trituration capsules and cotton rolls are expelled along with solid waste and often incinerated as well (Chin et al, 2000). The negative ramifications associated with dental mercury usage is on large a result of poor management of dental amalgam waste (Chin et al, 2000). To address these concerns, health professionals have attempted to implement programs that promote positive environmental action. For example, the DCW (Dentists for Cleaner Water) program involves the installation of dental amalgam separators with further measures put in place to decrease dental amalgam waste entering the water system by 95% (Adavb.net, 2016). To reduce waste, dentists are encouraged to slightly modify their usual habits such as purchasing in bulk, limiting single use items and setting printers for double-sided and greyscale printing. It is important for health professionals to be aware of the potential ecological and public health risks associated with
* A small amount of mercury is found in the crust of the earth. This is not the problem. The anthropogenic mercury is the problem.
“Not guilty by reason of insanity” (NGRI) has often perplexed even the most stringent of legal and psychiatric professionals for centuries. Moreover, it has transcended into the pop culture, as a “loophole”for the criminal society. However, the insanity defense is only used in less than 1% of criminal cases, and used successfully in only 10-25% of those cases (Torry and Billick, 2010). In order to successfully be acquitted by reason of insanity, the legal team, paired with psychiatric professionals, must prove that the defendant is not legally responsible for the crime, despite the evidence that they executed the crime. They must also prove that the defendant, was or is currently suffering from a mental disorder, and that the defendant have/had a impaired logical control of their actions (Smith, 2011). According to Torry and Billick (2010), “A criminal act must have two components: evil intent (mens rea, literally “guilt mind”) and action (actus reus, literally “guilty act”)” (p.225), thus the defendant must prove that he/she did not have “mens rea” or “actus reus.” Equally important to note, the act itself must be voluntary and conscious. The the majority of the psychological and judicial court system have a reluctance to hold defendants who lack the capability needed to understand “right from wrong” (Torry and Billick, 2010). It has been proven that over the course of many years, the NGRI have been difficult to apply. During the early 1980’s, many states modernized their NGRI defense and even abolished the defense altogether. Instead of allowing the the “not guilty by reason of insanity” defense, many states have established a verdict of “guilty but mentally ill” (GBMI) (Smith, 2011). In order to make sure that individuals w...
The earliest use of amalgams in dentistry is still quite unknown to researchers but there are claims that it may have been dated as far back as 659 A.D. in China. Before the discovery of the amalgam dentist tried all types of material to help in the restoration of teeth. Stone chips, resin, cork, gum, turpentine, lead, and gold were some of the early materials that were boiled up and poured on teeth to create fillings. A dentist by the name of Louis Regnart had the brilliant idea t...
Marina City, as a modernist urban solution, was possible by Bertrand Goldberg because of his formal architectural training as well as his early practice and interaction with key architects. Exposure to architectural, socioeconomic, and cultural context that shaped modernist architecture developed him as an architect. Influence began early on from his physics teacher, George Vaubel, which inspired him with a lifelong love for logic and “reasoning backwards” and finding evidence for what was taught to him. Goldberg studied at the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape then at the Bauhaus in Berlin, Germany and lastly, at the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago. He discovered architecture while studying at Harvard in 1930. The dean, Henry Frost, allowed Goldberg to study with his graduate studio as an undergraduate. During the Great Depression, Goldberg was studying at Harvard where debates with professors and fellow students centered on the political and social problem, dealing with poverty. It unleashed and influenced his lifelong consciousness of social and political factors because he took social and political problems into consideration when designing. Harvard exposed Goldberg to the Beaux-Arts architecture and he desired to go to Paris to study but instead went to the Bauhaus after being advised.
Expoure to elemental mercury is mostly due to indoor spills, medical waste, and left over mercury from school labs, which is due to humans not pro...
According to Jennifer Feehan, a notable authors, it is nationally “estimated that less than 1% of all criminal defendants enter insanity pleas in felony cases, and only a fraction of those are found to have been insane at the time they committed the offense” (Feehan 1). The insanity plea is one of the many issues that troubles the American Justice System and is a controversial topic to many. Why is this a topic so popular if it is such a rare defense used in court? One possible answer may be that the public may misinterpret what actually happens to someone who is found “not guilty by the reason of insanity” (NGRI) (Gilligan 135). The insanity plea is a defense mechanism used in trial to say that the defendant is not responsible and not consciously aware of what he did at the time of the crime. Some
These trials are significant. The complex and overwhelming events surrounding the trials help historians and sociologists “understand the issues of that time and apply our understanding to our own society.” The early 1950s House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and McCarthy hearings identified alleged communists in government and the entertainment field. These accusations and their consequences mirror the temperament, incidents, accusations and consequences displayed in the 1692-1693 events (“The 1692 Salem Witch Trials”). In both instances, innocent people were accused of offenses they did not commit. The evidence against both groups of the accused was sparse and often unsubstantiated. The ridicule and rejection that resulted echoed down the years. If the Salem Witch Trials had not occurred it is likely the lives of the accused would have been saved and the torment and satanic cult that developed would have been
This song much like the others it take us to dark place after dealing with a friends death he writes this song under the bridge, because he felt as if he was all alone " sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner". This is how he felt after dealing with friends death and feels all alone by himself...
It is these chemicals that are causing damage to the nearby villages. The mine is located up on a hill. As the water makes its way down the hill it comes down full of sediments turning it a brown colour. It’s these extra impurities in the water that are killing the fish and medicine plants that villages rely on. Pollution in the water is also having an effect on the livestock that are farmed in the area by drinking poisoned water. In 2000, a truck carrying mercury from the mine spilled a container of the toxic metal over a 40km section of road. The accident was not reported until the next day where hundreds of people had to be hospitalised after collecting the mercury (BBC, 2002). An investigation also concluded that the container used to transport the mercury should not have been used and failed to follow international standards for the safe transport of hazardous materials (Hallman & Olivera,
Dental amalgam consists of two components: liquid (Mercury) and Powdered alloy (Mixture of Silver tin copper zinc iridium or palladium). Elemental mercury constitutes approx. 50% of the total weight. The chemical reaction allows it to binds all other components together to form a firm, safe and stable mass of filling material and allows it to be easily manipulated into the oral cavity.(1,2)