Posts Tagged ‘amalgam poisoning’

Mercury is uniquely both a heavy metal and a liquid at room temperature. Only three other elements are liquids at room temperature. Its atomic number is 80. Other metals near it on the Periodic Chart include silver, gold, cadmium, and lead. Gold is the only one of these that is more dense. Being both a metal and liquid had made it both useful and harmful. The usefulness has been known for centuries. The harm we are only beginning to learn.

Mercury has been around for a long time. It was known in ancient China and India and was found in Egyptian tombs built 3500 years ago. Mercury metal is extracted from cinnabar, or mercury sulfide. Cinnabar is mined mostly in Texas, California, Spain and Italy. The metal has been used for years in thermometers, sphygmomanometers, and barometers because it responds to temperature and pressure changes uniformly and because 13 times less mercury is needed in the measuring column than if it contained water. The down side of this is that mercury, mercury vapor, and all soluble salts of mercury are extreme poisons.

The poisonous nature of mercury has not kept it from being used in a wide variety of products. Blue light street lights are generally mercury vapor lights. Mercury sulfide, in the form of vermillion, is used as a paint to slow the growth of barnacles on ships. Mercury is also used in fluorescent lights. When they are broken indoors, enough poisonous mercury vapor is given off to be a health risk. Mercury is still used in some cosmetics and dental amalgams. Not so many years ago, it was common to paint mercurochrome on a wound to prevent infection. Greater awareness of the effects of mercury poisoning has outlawed such tinctures.

Today we are much more aware of the far reaching negative effects of heavy metals on health. In fact, these metals have no known need in the body. Their presence is nearly always negative. They get into our bodies in a variety of ways. More specific for this article, the abundant use of mercury in the past has now poisoned water, land, and seas. Mercury poisoning in fish, especially tuna and swordfish, is a problem and fish must be monitored continually.

These are a few common products containing mercury in some form. Each poses a threat to cause mercury poisoning: algaecides, body powders, calomel lotions, dental amalgams, felt, germicides, insecticides, manufacture of paper and chlorine, paper products, polluted water, skin lightening creams, and tanning leather.

Consider these selected complications caused by mercury poisoning: alopecia, birth defects, cerebral palsy, jerky movements, dermatitis, drowsiness, gum bleeding and soreness, memory loss, migraines, retinitis, schizophrenia, etc. etc. Heavy metals can indirectly or directly damage the very DNA code thus increasing the risk of cancer.

Just how you are affected by metal poisoning will depend on the metal, the dose, and the length of time of exposure. The symptoms for mercury often include sensory impairment such as hearing, speech, or vision problems, disturbed sensation, and a problem with coordination.

The number of products that either used or are using some form of mercury is frightening, is it not? So many of these, once discarded, end up in landfills only to leach their poisons into the ground water. City water systems are required to monitor for metal poisons. But if you rely on a well or spring for your drinking or cooking water, you could be in trouble!

This article is not designed to frighten you but to alert you to possible danger of mercury poisoning. We can’t do anything about landfill leaching into our present water sources. Neither can we do anything about decreasing the number of products using mercury in some form. But we can do whatever possible to make our drinking water safe. If you have any doubts about your water, it is best to filter it before drinking or cooking with it. An activated charcoal filter for example promises to remove up to 95% of any mercury or other heavy metals in the water. It does this through its ability to adsorb the toxins. The investment in a good water filter will not only be worth the money, but will give the added benefit of bringing you peace of mind.