Not hermetically sealed

by Feòrag

Public health workers have become increasingly concerned about the use of mercury in rituals associated with Santeria, a syncretic magical religion of Caribbean origin.

There had been much talk in the public health world of practitioners of Santeria, Vodun and other underground religions of Caribbean origin contaminating their homes and vehicles by sprinkling mercury. But so far, no one had been able to document just how far-reaching this practice might be.

Unfortunately, the only person who would speak to researchers was a rather confused owner of a New Age shop, who misheard them and thought they said "salt water":

In fact, the only merchant who would even admit to knowing anything about mercury was the owner of a New Age store in New Hope, Pennsylvania, who told them mercury is part of some pagan rituals of European origin.

The mostly 'Latino' practitioners are naturally concerned about being scapegoated if they co-operate with the investigation.

But these large-scale federal investigations are being greeted with some misgivings by practitioners of Santeria and Vodun as well as community groups working in Latino communities in the region--even among some of the people who will actually be working on the new efforts to educate and inform the public on mercury's hazards. They are concerned not only that any findings will be ripe for more sensationalistic headlines, but that the focus on household poisoning singles out an exotic-seeming practice--and a single, relatively powerless group of people. Why, they ask, are other contributors of mercury to the environment, which may be just as devastating to human health, not getting the same attention?

It has been shown by the EPA and other people that the biggest source of mercury is from coal-burning power plants. How many articles do you see about that? asks Marian Feinberg, health plan coordinator for the South Bronx Clean Air Coalition, an environmental justice group that is participating in the NIH project. It is very easy to lay blame on an individual--much harder to consider the larger physical environment that people live in.

Mercury Rising - City Limits, February 2003.