Read the Following Scenario and Answer the Question Below

question 34

Multiple Choice

Read the following scenario and answer the question below.
Mercury is a heavy metal that occurs naturally in minerals and rocks. Release of mercury from natural sources has been relatively constant over time. However, anthropogenic release of mercury has increased significantly in recent years primarily due to increased fossil fuel mining and combustion. Mercury that is released into the air eventually ends up in soils or surface water. Once in water, microbes convert mercury into methyl mercury, which is absorbed quickly and concentrated in the tissues of predatory fish such as shark and swordfish. Large fish typically concentrate more mercury than small fish.
People who eat fish with high methyl mercury concentrations can show tremors, deafness, muscle incoordination, and attention deficits. Pregnant women and children are especially sensitive to methyl mercury's toxic effects. Learning disabilities and developmental delays are common in children who have been exposed to significant levels of methyl mercury.
-Prior to 2005, no rules regulating mercury emissions from coal- fired power plants existed in the United States. This represents the _____________.

• A)dose- response initiative
• B)innocent- until- proven- guilty approach
• C)case- study approach
• D)precautionary principle
• E)Ames approach

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Definitions:

Aquatic Ecosystems

Water-based environments—including oceans, lakes, rivers, and wetlands—that support a diverse range of life through complex interrelationships.

Mosses

Small, non-vascular plants that typically form dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations.

Lichens

Symbiotic associations between a fungus and a photosynthetic partner, usually an algae or cyanobacteria, which live together as a single, unique organism.

Sedges

A family of grass-like plants, often found in wet grounds, distinguished by their edges (edges, sedges) and triangular stems.