Mercury Poisoning

[zonker]

This past week I met a young lady who is dealing with heavy metal poisoning. It seems at age 15-16 (she's in her mid 20's now) she worked in a dental office, cleaning equipment where she was directly exposed to the stuff. About a year ago she began to be very sick. She was pregnant and lost the baby in a miscarriage. Numerous doctors could find nothing wrong with her, though her symptoms were very real. Finally she found a doctor who tested her for this and found that her mercury levels were "off the human charts." I won't go into detail in describing her symptoms but they are horrendous! She has been going through treatment for the past six months. The treatments are debilitating. The doctor estimates she has at least six more months to go for the treatment and is slow to offer a prognosis, even with that.

I write this only for your consideration. Many of our public and private waters have warnings about eating fish taken from them due to high levels of mercury. Its easy to just dismiss it as so much over concern from officials who need to justify their positions, but now having seen an actual example, I'll be more careful with what I eat.

This observation is anecdotal only. I have no scientific knowledge of this matter.

zonker
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Sad to hear about the young lady you mentioned. I have heard of other stories of people who were similarly exposed to large amounts of mercury through their jobs. The stuff is insidious and builds up until it can cause massive organ damage. And, like many other potentially harmful chemicals, it does not manifest itself until the damage is irreversible.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We in the western states are probably more likely to be affected by the potential existence of methyl mercury in the fish we eat, because we often fish in watersheds that have experienced gold mining during the past hundred years or so. Mercury was used extensively in gold recovery and then lost or discarded in the process. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I used to dive and pan for gold in the California "mother lode" area. It was not uncommon to find either pure mercury droplets or "amalgam" of gold and mercury in the bottom of the dredge or pan. Much of that mercury degrades and dissolves into the water, where it enters the food chain. In some lakes and streams we have advisories against eating any of the fish or consuming any waterfowl taken from those areas.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Because mercury also vaporizes when heated (as in the gold recovery process), the vapors also go airborn and can be absorbed by and redeposited into the environment in the rain that falls downwind. That's how many of the streams and lakes to the east of mining areas become mercury contaminated. Kind of the same principal as "acid rain" downwind of large coal burning utilities and factories.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I hope the young lady is able to benefit from the treatments. Too bad she has to endure them. [/#0000ff]
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