Mercury rising: for a decade researchers have suspected that a magical metal is an underground health scourge. Now a partnership of science and religion may finally tell New Yorkers the truth.

City Limits, February, 2003 by Paul, Smita

Two summers ago, Arizona anthropologist C. Allison Newby came to the New York area to do a study of what appeared to be an alarming underground phenomenon. She wanted to figure out how many people were following an ancient belief that sprinkling mercury around one's home brings fortune and love, and discourages evil from darkening one's door. Along with Donna M. Riley, an engineer who now teaches at Smith College, Newby sought to crack into a community that had been the subject of growing interest among academics: people whose religious beliefs encouraged use of this liquid metal, which is highly toxic, as part of their rituals.

There had been much talk in the public health world of practitioners of Santeria, Vodun and other underground religions of Caribbean...

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