ABSTRACT
The New York Times of August 26, 1991, carried a headline on its first page that
reverberates with debates that are even more strident today: “Despite Era of Concern for
the Earth, Mercury is Re-emerging as a Peril.” It pointed to the deepening concern over
contamination by mercury of aquatic life and how it had aroused governmental agencies
charged with environmental protection and public health to take preventive and regulatory
action. It described the origins of the catastrophe in Minamata, Japan, a fishing village
whose inhabitants suffered an epidemic of methylmercury poisoning from contaminated
fish. It told of the conflicts faced by sport and subsistence fishermen about the safety of
consuming their catch, and of the confusion and wariness on the part of fish consumers.
