What is a persons risk of mercury poisoning?
Because of their dependence on fish as a primary source of food, the potential risk for a person living in Minamata in the 1950s was high. For today’s middle school students, the risk is relatively low. The average middle school student does not consume enough fish to pose a problem, and most of the fish is commercially caught in regulated waters. Only a middle school student who lived near contaminated water and regularly ate the fish from the contaminated water would be at a higher risk. Then, continue answering the questions in the Risk Management section of the transparency: • How do the people involved perceive the risk? Are their perceptions accurate? Possible answers: At first, Minamata residents did not know of the risk or worry about it. Once they began to see the effects of mercury poisoning, they perceived the risk as very serious. Their perceptions were accurate: Their primary food source was contaminated by industrial pollution, and that pollution was having a direct effec
