Context
The properties of mercury make it a successful fungicide. However, in Europe and America, its health risks (even when consumed in small quantities) were known. Methylmercury had been banned in Sweden in 1966, the first country to do so, and the United Kingdom followed in 1971. Previous mercury-poisoning incidents had occurred in Iraq in 1956 and 1960. In 1956, there had been around 200 cases, and 70 deaths; in 1960 there had been 1000 cases and 200 deaths, in both cases due to ethylmercury compounds. Among the recommendations made after the 1960 incident had been to colour any toxic grain for easy identification. Before the 1971 incident, around 200–300 cases of methylmercury poisoning had been reported worldwide. Drought had reduced harvests in 1969, affecting 500,000 people, and in 1970. Saddam Hussein's government decided to import mercury-coated seed grain for the late 1971 planting season. Hussein himself may have worked in the Department of Agriculture in the aftermath of the 1960 incident.
Read more about this topic: 1971 Iraq Poison Grain Disaster
Famous quotes containing the word context:
“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Among the most valuable but least appreciated experiences parenthood can provide are the opportunities it offers for exploring, reliving, and resolving one’s own childhood problems in the context of one’s relation to one’s child.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)
“The hippie is the scion of surplus value. The dropout can only claim sanctity in a society which offers something to be dropped out of—career, ambition, conspicuous consumption. The effects of hippie sanctimony can only be felt in the context of others who plunder his lifestyle for what they find good or profitable, a process known as rip-off by the hippie, who will not see how savagely he has pillaged intricate and demanding civilizations for his own parodic lifestyle.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)