Mercury Poisoning

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Symptoms of Mercury Poisoning

• Impairment of the peripheral vision
• Disturbances in sensations ("pins and needles" feelings, numbness) usually in the hands feet and sometimes around the mouth
• Lack of coordination of movements, such as writing
• Impairment of speech, hearing, walking;
• Muscle weakness
• Skin rashes
• Mood swing
• Memory loss
• Mental disturbance

Mercury Exposure

Health problems caused by mercury depend on how much has entered your body, how it entered your body, how long you have been exposed to it, and how your body responds to the mercury. People are at risk when they consume mercury-contaminated fish and when they are exposed to spilled mercury.

Elemental (metallic) mercury and its compounds are toxic and exposure to excessive levels can permanently damage or fatally injure the brain and kidneys. Elemental mercury can also be absorbed through the skin and cause allergic reactions. Ingestion of inorganic mercury compounds can cause severe renal and gastrointestinal toxicity. Organic compounds of mercury such as methylmercury are considered the most toxic forms of the element. Exposures to very small amounts of these compounds can result in devastating neurological damage and death.

For fetuses, infants and children, the primary health effects of mercury are on neurological development. Even low levels of mercury exposure such as result from mother's consumption methylmercury in dietary sources can adversely affect the brain and nervous system. Impacts on memory, attention, language and other skills have been found in children exposed to moderate levels in the womb.

Mercury Spills

All mercury spills, regardless of quantity, should be treated seriously. Metallic mercury slowly evaporates when exposed to the air. The air in a room can reach contamination levels just from the mercury in a broken thermometer. Mercury in school labs should be handled with care and stored safely and securely.

Mercury Pollution

Mercury pollution is released into the air from the burning of fossil fuels. It falls down directly onto waterways or is deposited on land where it can be washed into the water. Bacteria in the water cause chemical changes that transform mercury into a highly toxic form - methylmercury.

Methylmercury accumulates in fish, with larger fish generally accumulating higher levels of methylmercury. If you are pregnant or could become pregnant, are nursing a baby, or if you are feeding a young child, you should limit consumption of freshwater fish caught by family and friends to one meal per week. For adults one meal is six ounces of cooked fish or eight ounces uncooked fish; for a young child one meal is two ounces cooked fish or three ounces uncooked fish. Many states collect data on mercury levels in fish from local waters and issue fish consumption advisories.

For more information on freshwater fish consumption advisories across the country, go to http://map1.epa.gov/.

Additional Mercury Information

"Our prefered poison" - A little mercury is all that humans need to do away with themselves quietly, slowly, and surely.

"Mercury Health Hazards" - The National Institutes of Health provides information on how mercury affects health including occupational exposure.

"Reducing Mercury Use In Health Care" - This EPA manual helps hospitals start or improve mercury pollution prevention programs.

MedlinePlus offers health information from the National Library of Medicine.

Advisory on Methylmercury in Fish, US Food and Drug Administration - The US FDA has issued guidelines on the consumption of certain commercial seafood that might be contaminated with mercury.

Mercury Research Strategy - EPA's plan for mercury research, covering the FY2001 – 2005 timeframe. It describes the human health and ecological risks posed by mercury and indicates that mercury should be considered on local, regional, and global scales. The Strategy identifies the most important scientific questions for EPA and then describes a research program to answer those questions.

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Mercury Factsheet - ATSDR's toxicological factsheet which answers the frequently asked health questions about mercury.

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Metallic Mercury Exposure Alert - ATSDR's National Alert about metallic mercury in school and ritual use.

IRIS Health Assessment for Mercury and Methylmercury - Human health effects that may result from exposure to mercury or methylmercury (select from drop-down box). Part of the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) database.

Tox Town - The world's largest medical library, the US National Library of Medicine, a part of the National Institutes of Health, has developed an introductory Web site about toxic chemicals and environmental health risks such as mercury, lead, and asbestos in the towns and cities where you live.

Health Care Without Harm is a nongovernment agency that provides information about reducing the use of mercury in health care.

Prognosis of mercury poisoning in mercury refinery workers.

Ann Acad Med Singapore. 1984 Apr;13(2 Suppl):389-93.

He FS, Zhow XR, Lin BX, Xiung YP, Chen SY, Zhang SL, Ru JY, Deng MH.

The prognosis of chronic metallic mercury poisoning in two groups of patients from the mercury refinery of a mercury mine was evaluated by reexamination which included an interview, physical and neurological examination and determination of urinary mercury. Group I consisted of 70 male patients, who had been exposed to metallic mercury for 1.6-17.8 years, 15 of whom had been diagnosed 10 years earlier as having severe chronic metallic mercury poisoning, and the rest moderate chronic metallic mercury poisoning. At the time of reexamination, they had been removed from mercury exposure for 2 months-17 years. None of them had been treated with any chelating agent. Group 2 comprised 84 male patients from the same mercury mine, who had been exposed to metallic mercury for 2-10 years after 1962 and had been previously diagnosed as having mild chronic metallic mercury poisoning. They were reexamined after 2 months of hospital admission and chelation treatment with unithiol or sodium dimercaptosuccinate (Na-DMS). Based on clinical evaluation, the condition of the patients in both groups had all improved, even in the severe cases. The overall prognosis of chronic metallic mercury poisoning in mercury refinery workers was encouraging after termination of mercury exposure. Chelation therapy with unithiol or Na-DMS was evidently beneficial for reducing urine mercury and some symptoms, but not for neurological and stomal signs.

PMID: 6497343 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

The Mercury Morass

By The University of Wisconsin's whyfiles.org from grants by the National Science Foundation - Author credits

Coal-fired electric utilities are the largest single source of mercury in the atmosphere. Photo: USGS

Burning makes 86 percent of total U.S. mercury emissions. Coal-fired utility boilers account for 34 percent; other big sources include coal-fired industrial boilers, burning of municipal, medical, and hazardous waste, and manufacturing. Graph: Environmental Protection Ag

Mercury from power plants and other pollution sources is converted by bacteria into methylmercury, which gets bio-accumulated in the food chain. Top predators have far higher concentrations of methylmercury than the animals they eat. Image: USG

Mother's Mercury

Just before leaving office, the Clinton Administration wrote regulations to reduce mercury air pollution. Nobody argues that high levels of mercury contamination can cause birth defects and brain damage.

Although cases of obvious mercury poisoning are rare, levels in rain and surface waters have risen over the decades, and coal-burning power plants are the largest single source of mercury in the air. Pres. Clinton's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a 90 percent reduction in electric-utility emissions by the end of 2007.

Industry objected. Too expensive, it said. "...there is no existing technology that can control mercury emissions across the entire utility industry," it wrote.

The new administration deep-sixed the Clinton cuts and called for a regulatory system to reduce utility mercury by 70 percent -- in 2018.

Like the Administration's earlier proposal to ease regulation on arsenic in drinking water, the back-tracking alarmed physicians, public-health types and environmental activists. The EPA itself had said that each year, mothers' mercury threatened 300,000 American children with brain defects (see "Blood Organic Mercury").

"The fundamental question is, does this protect children as soon as technologically possible? Everything indicates that it doesn't," says Susan West Marmagas, director of environment and health programs at the non-profit Physicians for Social Responsibility. Charging that two EPA reviews had already agreed that power plant controls were feasible, she adds, "We have the technology to produce the 90 percent reduction by 2007, and this proposal does not do it soon enough."

The revised mercury rule also sparked protests from eastern-state senators. The March of Dimes, an organization that fights birth defects, asked the EPA to "withdraw its current proposal on mercury emissions from coal-powered utility units and replace it with a more stringent set of guidelines to be implemented as soon as possible." Industrial mercury, the normally non-political group said, "seriously threatens the health of America's mothers and babies."

The mercury rule and other changes caused upheaval at the EPA, and some air-pollution staffers quit in disgust (see "Changing All the Rules..." in the bibliography).

Quicksilver message
Over a decade, mercury pollution has ballooned from an obscure concern into a pressing environmental problem. Almost every list of dangerous air pollutants now mentions the silvery, liquid metal that, like uranium, plutonium and neptunium, shares its name with a planet.

Mercury has been used in patent medicine, thermometers, vaccines, paints, light switches, and is still used in fluorescent light bulbs. Once released into the atmosphere, usually by burning, some mercury compounds can be converted by bacteria into methylmercury, which is taken up in plants and the animals that eat them.

Biological accumulation sounds like a nightmare invented by radical greenies, but it's a reality with decay-resistant chemicals like PCBs and mercury. In water that contains 1 to 10 parts of mercury per trillion parts of water, methylmercury can bio-accumulate to 1 part per million, a level found in some top predators like tuna, swordfish and shark.

That's a million-fold increase.

Don't drink the water. Don't breathe the air. And DON'T eat the fish!
One result of bio-accumulation is a profusion of warning signs at America's waterways. Indeed, mercury pollution is "extraordinarily widespread," says Charles Driscoll, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Syracuse University, who studies mercury levels in the environment. "There are 45 states with fish advisories, 19 with blanket advisories [covering all surface waters], 12 million acres of lakes and 473,000 river miles where there are advisories. It's a large proportion of our aquatic resources."

Nonetheless, the Edison Electric Institute, a utility-industry group that failed to respond to our request for comment, answered "Is it safe for me to eat fish" with a bold-faced, one-word sentence: "Yes" in its publication, "Straight Answers about Mercury".)

Industrial dumping of mercury in Japan during the 1950s caused horrific birth defects and proved the danger of high-level mercury poisoning.

The health worries about mercury date to the mid-1950s, when villagers in Minamata, Japan, began complaining of numbness, dizziness, and other nerve symptoms. Cats were said to be "committing suicide," and birds were falling from the sky.

It turned out that a local chemical factory had dumped about 27 tons of mercury into nearby waters over the decades, and the mercury was concentrated -- bio-accumulated -- in fish eaten by all the injured parties. "Minamata disease" proved that high concentrations of mercury could kill and cause grievous injury.

Just how much of a health threat is low-level mercury contamination? Unhealthy Quicksilver

The Minamata disaster in Japan put mercury's health effects in the headlines. But was this massive exposure relevant to the tiny exposures of day-to-day life?

After all, toxicology lives by the maxim, "The dose makes the poison."

Is eating a lot of fish hazardous to your health? Perhaps, especially if you eat predators, where mercury tends to concentrate. Photo: William B. Folsom, NOAA

You can safely down an aspirin every day to keep your blood moving. But gobble the whole bottle, and you will rot your digestive pipes. At the recommended dose, aspirin is medicine. At the whole-bottle overdose, it's poison.

But if the mercury poisoning in Minamata does not prove the danger of low doses, nor does it prove their safety, either.

The next mercury disaster struck in Iraq in 1961, where villagers ate donated grain seeds that had been treated with mercury fungicide (the seed bags bore a warning label -- in English). Again, the symptoms included nerve problems -- mercury, like lead and many other heavy metals, is toxic to nerve cells. But again, the doses were higher than those you can get from eating fish, and while 35 people died , the low-dose question remained unanswered.

Mercury: Thermometer rising

In the 1980s, using ever-more accurate chemical detectors, scientists found widespread, low-level mercury contamination, even in "pristine" places like the Wisconsin northwoods, miles from sources of industrial pollution. In the open ocean, tuna and other predators were also carrying a burden of mercury.

Tests for mercury in blood and hair showed that mercury, AKA "quicksilver," was also finding its way into another top predator, Homo sapiens. How did mercury get there, and what was it doing?

The answer to the first question came quickly: Almost all human exposure to methylmercury, which is apparently the most dangerous form, came from eating fish and shellfish.

Here's a historical irony for you. During the 1980s and '90s, a long campaign to restrict use and dumping of PCBs was starting to bear fruit. And so as public workers started taking down some of the "Caution: Fish polluted with PCB" signs, others began nailing up placards with a different warning: "Caution: Fish contain mercury. Don't eat if you're pregnant, thinking about getting pregnant, or a young child."

Today, as we've mentioned, 45 states warn about mercury pollution in some lakes or rivers. In 19 states, these "advisories" apply to all freshwaters.

Murky mercury?

Although even people who eat some fish usually have low levels of contamination, Michael Gochfeld, of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute in New Jersey, says clinics do see poisoning in the mercury-rich Eastern United States. Gochfeld, who chaired the New Jersey Mercury Pollution Task Force, says, "Periodically we see people who have eaten a lot of fish, and actually have some evidence of mercury impairment," such as difficulty with memory or muscle control. After they slack off on the fishwiches, he adds, "their blood mercury has gone down, their symptoms have gone down."

In the late 1980s, to probe the health effects of the chronic, low-level exposures that could be affecting hundreds of millions around the world, three major studies began looking at diet, mothers' mercury levels, and child health.

Results interesting, but confusing?

Click here for more info about mercury exposure from whyfiles.org

Twenty-One Percent of Women Tested Nationwide Have Mercury Levels Higher Than EPA Limit

Interim Results of Mercury Hair Sampling Project Highlight Negative Impact of Dirty Power

Wed October 20, 2004, Washington DC, UNITED STATES

Interim results of Greenpeace's Mercury Hair Sampling Project were released today by the Environmental Quality Institute (EQI) at the University of North Carolina-Asheville. The survey found mercury levels exceeding the EPA's recommended limit of 1 microgram of mercury per gram of hair in 21 percent (126 out of 597) of women of childbearing age tested.

So far, hair tests have been analyzed for 1,449 people of all ages around the country. Mercury contamination is a particular concern for women of childbearing years (16 to 49 years old) because mercury exposure in the womb can cause neurological damage and other health problems in children. The EPA has not established mercury exposure health standards for older children, men, or women older than 49.

"I have an obligation to protect the health of my children as well as my own health," said Leila Varella, a 29-year-old mother from Philadelphia who got herself and her 6-year-old son tested. "Knowledge is power and getting tested is a first step toward protecting my family and community from mercury pollution. "

Coal burning power plants are the nation's biggest mercury polluter, releasing 41 percent of the country's industrial mercury pollution. Mercury from these dirty power plants and other sources falls into lakes, streams and oceans, concentrating in fish and shellfish, which are then consumed by people.

"In the samples we analyzed, the greatest single factor influencing mercury exposure was the frequency of fish consumption," said Dr. Richard Maas, Co-director of EQI and author of the report. "We saw a direct relationship between people's mercury levels and the amount of store-bought fish, canned tuna fish or locally caught fish people consumed."

"People should not have to stop eating fish because they're afraid they'll get poisoned by mercury," said Greenpeace Energy Campaigner Casey Harrell. "We need a President who will cut mercury pollution and move us away from dirty fossil fuels by investing in clean, renewable energy."

Greenpeace started the Mercury Hair Sampling Project as a response to President Bush's failure to clean up power plant mercury pollution. Switching from coal and oil to wind and solar energy would reduce pollution and its negative health impacts, help solve global warming and create jobs.

EQI will continue testing into 2005 and issue the final report in the spring. Click here to get a Mercury Test Kit

Mercury Detox Diet

By Joseph Mercola, MD

Avoid all sugar and milk, limit all processed foods and most grains, especially wheat.

It will be important to have a high protein diet as the sulfur bearing amino acids in the protein will greatly facilitate detoxification. Do NOT attempt to fast during DMPS mercury detoxification. If you are a vegetarian you will be at HIGH risk for complications from DMPS unless you have a large amount of protein.

Whey protein can be used as a supplement as it is high in glutathione and branched chain amino acids. Two large tablespoons are used per drink and that can be taken once a day and twice a day for the week prior to DMPS chelation.

Autistic children can't use this product as it contains casein. They can use pure branched chain amino acids. You can start with one capsule twice daily and mix with food. Work up to two capsules twice a day for the week prior to DMPS chelation.

2. Beneficial Bacteria

Take one quarter to one half teaspoon once a day of a high potency high quality strain. It is vital to have an optimized bowel flora for detoxification.

3. Maintain two to three bowel movements per day

If you are not having this many bowel movements make certain that your thyroid status has been checked. It is very common for mercury to affect the thyroid. If your thyroid function is fine then you should add some magnesium.

If you are on long-term magnesium it is important to take some calcium with it or after awhile you will develop an imbalance in your calcium magnesium ratio which could result in severe cramping.

Freshly ground flax seed several teaspoons per day will facilitate intestinal movement and also contribute some healthy essential fatty acids.

4. Unload the connective tissue with Chlorella or ProChitosan

Chlorella and ProChitosan are an important part of the detoxification program, as approximately 90% of the mercury in our bodies is eliminated through the stool. Chlorella is an algae and, unlike Protchitosan, has protein high levels of chlorophyll and other nutrients which can be used for nourishment.

The chlorella powder is the most cost effective approach but some people will prefer the tablets or capsules for convenience. A simple way to dissolve the powder is to place it in a container with a lid partially filled with water. Then tighten the lid and shake to dissolve and drink the solution.

Caution: About 30% of people can't tolerate chlorella. This may be due to optimized function of the enzyme cellulase. If you are unable to tolerate this it would be wise to consider adding an enzyme with cellulase in it to help digest the chlorella.

Dose: One can start out with a one quarter of a teaspoon of the powder (one 500 mg tablet) once a day initially to confirm that there is no hypersensitivity present. Work up slowly over one to two weeks to a dose of one teaspoon (ten tablets or capsules) per day. Once you tolerate this dose you are able to use it to bind the mercury. Use this dose starting two days prior to your chelation and for one day afterwards. The chlorella will thoroughly coat your intestine and bind like a sponge to any mercury that the DMPS liberates into the gut.

The above dose is based on a 150 pound adult. If you are using the program for children reduce the dose proportionately. (So a 30 pound child would have have 30/150 or 1/5 (20%) of the dose).

Caution: If at any time one develops nausea or starts "burping up" the chlorella taste then the chlorella should be stopped immediately as a food sensitivity is developing which will only worsen if you continue taking it. If this happens you should switch to ProChitosan This binds similarly to mercury. Its dose is dependent on your bowel movements.

If you have one bowel movement a day or less you should start two days prior to the DMPS . If you have two or more bowel movement you can start 24 hours prior to the DMPS. Stay on it for 24 hours after the DMPS. So you will be on it either two or three days. The dose is two capsules three times a day. Be sure to drink it with plenty of water and increase magnesium if constipation develops.

Porphrazyme from Biotics Research is another alternative to chlorella that many clinicians have had success with in mercury detoxification.

5. Start Garlic or MSM

It would be wise to start on garlic regularly to enhance sulfur stores. Use the food, rather than the supplement garlic. Try to get in three cloves per day, but decrease the dose if your odor becomes socially offensive.

Again, as indicated in the chlorella section above, children will have proportionately lower doses.

MSM is a form of sulfur which will help your body to remove the mercury. The initial dose is one capsule twice a day. Increase by one capsule a day until you are at three capsules twice a day. If you have root canals and are chronically sick you may want to increase to five capsules three times a day.

6. Start Cilantro

Cilantro will help mobilize mercury out of the tissue so the DMPS can attach to it and allow it to be excreted from the body. The best form of cilantro is a tincture available from Dragon River (505-583-2348).

The dose is one dropper applied on the wrists and rubbed in twice a day for the two weeks preceding the DMPS IV. It is used the morning prior to the DMPS chlelation but can be stopped for the following two weeks. The tincture is also particularly useful for any joint pain and could be rubbed on the joint that is hurting as an alternative.

You can also augment the tincture with using the herb. It is not as potent, but certainly will add to the program. However, like chlorella, many people are sensitive to oral cilantro. So, if you develop any nausea or discomfort after eating cilantro do not use it orally.

7. Mineral Replacement

It is important to have a generally healthy mineral base. The body works better with toxic metals than no metals at all. Enzymes have certain binding sites that require a metal for them to perform their function as a catalyst. When you are deficient in magnesium, sodium, zinc and other minerals, the body does not let go of the toxic metals very easily.

Selenium and zinc are particularly important trace mineral in mercury detoxification and should be used for most people.

Generally the citrate form of minerals works quite nicely unless one has an low blood phosphorous level. It is important to not take copper or iron though unless a clinician has examined a hair analysis and or blood work and recommended these minerals. Thorne Research has Citramins II which is citrated minerals without copper or iron.

Hydrochloric Acid:

If you do not have a sufficient amount of hydrochloric acid secreted by your stomach then it will be very difficult to ionize mineral supplements to absorb them properly. There is a hydrochloric acid reflex present on the lowest rib approximately one inch lateral to the midline. If this area on the rib is tender to palpation there is a strong likelihood the person is deficient in hydrochloric acid and would benefit from supplementation.

This is especially common in individuals over 50 years old, and also in individuals with food allergies. One to six capsules or more of Betaine hydrochloride is generally taken with the first bite of every meal for proper digestive support. The Betaine can be discontinued once the reflex point in non-tender to deep palpation.

Monitoring Your Mineral Dosing

It will be very important to monitor your mineral levels during the detoxification program. This should be done initially and at least every 6-12 weeks. I only recommend two labs to do this work. Trace Elements and Analytical Research as they are the only two labs that do not wash the hair samples prior to analysis.

8. Digestion and Gall Bladder Support for Autism

Liver and gallbladder congestion are major issues in states of toxicity. To insure that your gallbladder bile flow is functional add magnesium taurate or taurine, butyric acid (Butryex 559-433-3110)

The dose of the Butyrex initially is 1/8-1/4 of capsule. Gradually increase the dose to 5 capsules 3 times daily. The Butyrex has a offensive odor which is lessened by keeping it in the freezer. Additionally inserting the powder in applesauce, raw honey or elderberry cough syrup may improve compliance.

Digestive enzymes (containing lipase) and CCK (stimulates contraction of the gall bladder. These can be used one hour after meals containing fat. CCK is taken after dinner (high fat meal)

• young children 1/4 tablet
• older children 1/2 tablet
• teenagers 1 tablet
• adults 2 to 4 tablets

Your ability to clear toxins will be impaired if you do not have proper fats to support digestive function. Your diet should contain adequate fat from unprocessed pure oils. Omega Nutrition, Flora or Arrowhead Mills

• sunflower
• safflower
• sesame

OR fats naturally found in foods:

• seeds
• nuts
• avocado
• free range organic poultry, eggs, or meats

9. Antioxidants

Vitamin C and E. It would be wise to take Unique vitamin E one capsule per day and about 250-500 mg of vitamin C with each meal. If you are exercising aggressively you can take 1000 mg of C 15-30 minutes prior to exercising. It is also wise to consider adding 2-4,000 mg of Vitamin C powder to a half gallon of water and drinking that throughout the day.

It will be VERY important to take 2000 units (typically five of the 400 unit capsules) of vitamin E the day of and the day after the DMPS injection as this will decrease the side effects of the detoxification reaction considerably. You can also take 1-2 grams of vitamin C immediately prior to the DMPS injection.

For pediatric patients

11. DMPS Alternative