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Mercury is just straight up nasty stuff. It causes cancer. It makes you stupid. It is one leading hypothesis as the reason violent crime happened at 2x or 3x th
by KarlKemp 5y ago
Mercury is just straight up nasty stuff. It causes cancer. It makes you stupid. It is one leading hypothesis as the reason violent crime happened at 2x or 3x the rate just 50 years ago.
The collapse of the Roman Empire probably wasn’t caused by Mercury poisoning. But just being considered a legitimate contender for that role is impressively scary.
- rsynnott 5y agoThe main concern for Romans was lead, not mercury. Not due to pipes, as commonly believed, so much as due to the fact that they _used lead salts to flavor food_. This also, of course, didn't cause the fall of the empire.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> so much as due to the fact that they _used lead salts to flavor food_ I believe it was also common to sweeten wine by leaving it in lead carafes.
- chipsa 5y agoIt's the "Lead-crime" hypothesis, not "mercury-crime" hypothesis, largely driven by the phase out of leaded gasoline and lead paint, and correlated drops in crime after that.
- KarlKemp 5y agoYea, of course! Thanks for noticing! I believe the two do have similar risk profiles. Lead has always been more abundant and used, however.