Mercury is widely distributed in the earth's crust,but only rarely does it occur in more than trace amounts.Understandably then,there was little interest in removing mercury,until two events caused worries over levels of mercury.The first was in the early 1950s when fishermen and their families around Mina Mata Bay in Japan were found to be suffering from mercury poisoning caused by trace levels of mercury in a factory effluent being converted into an organo-mercury that accumulated in fish.
展开▼
