How Does Mercury Poisoning Affect Your Health?

Sunday, February 28th, 2010 at 3:34 pm

Mercury metal is a highly useful element, number 80 on the Periodic Chart of the elements. It is the only heavy metal that is a liquid at room temperature, one of only four elements that is so. Its qualities as a liquid and a heavy metal have made it both useful and deadly in history. Other metals on the Periodic Chart with similar characteristics are gold, silver, cadmium, and lead. Of these, only gold is denser.

Mercury was found in Egyptian tombs placed there 3500 years ago. It was known in ancient China and India. Mercury metal comes from cinnabar, or mercury sulfide. Most of the world’s supply comes from Spain and Italy in Europe, or California and Texas in the states. People have been used mercury for years in thermometers, barometers, and sphygmomanometers because the column of liquid can be 13 times shorter than using a column of water or a substance the same density as water. The problem is that mercury vapor, mercury metal, and all soluble salts of mercury are all very poisonous.

In spire of its poisonous nature, mercury has been used in a wide variety of ways. Street lights with a blue tinge are generally mercury vapor lights. Vermillion, which is really mercury sulfide, is used as a ship paint to reduce the problem of barnacles. Mercury has also been used in fluorescent lights. If they are broken indoors, the powder coming out contains enough poisonous mercury vapor to be a health risk. Mercury is also used in dental amalgams and some cosmetics though some claim no health risk has ever been proven. When the author growing up, it was common to paint mercurochrome on a wound with a glass rod to keep the wound from being infected. Today it is outlawed.

Researched has heightened awareness of the far reaching negative effects of heavy metals on health. The fact is, mercury, lead, cadmium and other heavy metals are not needed by the body. Indeed, their presence is nearly always negative. We ingest them in a variety of ways. The abundant use of mercury in the past has now poisoned water, land, and seas. Today mercury poisoning in tuna and swordfish is a serious health risk and 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.

The list of the negative effects of mercury poisoning is frightening. Here are a few: adrenal dysfunction, anorexia, brain damage, deafness, discouragement, eczema, joint pain, nerve fiber degeneration, speech disorders, etc. Metals can directly or indirectly damage DNA bringing an increase in cancer.

Symptoms typically include sensory impairment (vision, hearing, speech), disturbed sensation, and a lack of coordination. This does not mean if you suffer from one or more of these that you have heavy metal poisoning. But it does mean you could be poisoned and you should see a doctor to be tested.

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.

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