In September 2009 the EPA released its latest findings. “For four years, EPA worked with 47 states, three tribes, and two other federal agencies to collect fish from 500 lakes and reservoirs selected randomly from the estimated 147,000 target population of lakes and reservoirs in the 48 states. Analysis of fish samples included 268 persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals, most notably mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and dioxins and furans. Results show that mercury and PCBs were detected in every fish sample from all 500 lakes and reservoirs. Mercury concentrations in fish fillet samples exceeded EPA’s recommended tissue-based water quality criterion of 0.3 ppm at 49% of the sampled population of 76,559 lakes.”
That’s right folks, EVERY body of fresh water in the US is polluted with mercury and half of the fish are poisonous.
The World Health Organization reports that on average humans absorb the following amounts of mercury on a daily basis (in micrograms or mcg)--.3mcg from water and air, 2.61mcg from fish, 17mcg from amalgams (vaccines were not reported). This totals 19.91mcg per day. Remember, this is the WHO, not a radical group. The EPA, which allows 2-3 times the mercury exposure than the rest of the world, considers maximum exposure levels to be .1mcg per pound of body weight per day. By combining the WHO average and conservative EPA standards, you’d have to be 199.1 pounds or more to be safe. Americans are exposed to much higher average amounts because of higher amalgam filling averages, higher vaccine usage, and a more polluted environment because we are the largest coal burning country (with China close behind).
The truth is no study has ever been done that proves a safe level of mercury exposure, but there are over 4000 peer-reviewed studies and articles worldwide reporting the toxicity of mercury.
Here are a few more facts that I think you’ll find interesting:
- Males are more vulnerable to mercury because testosterone enhances its neurotoxicity.
- It is very common for mercury to affect the thyroid, an major regulatory gland in the body.
- A dental amalgam has enough mercury to release toxic levels of vapor for 274 years. The vapor is colorless, tasteless, and odorless.
- A shocking 95% of people with central nervous system disorders (epilepsy, m.s., migraines, etc.) have silver dental cavity fillings.
- Flu shots contain approximately 25 micrograms of mercury.
- People with silver dental fillings have 10 times higher mercury exposure than people without them. In 1985, a fetal physiologist Fritz Lorscheider and dentist Murray Vimy showed that mercury in amalgam continuously vaporizes, often from chewing food or gum and brushing teeth.
- Mercury vapor is HIGHLY permeable. It will easily pass through skull bone and get into your brain. 80% of mercury vapor that is inhaled is retained in the body, most often the brain.
- When dentists remove silver dental fillings from your mouth they are required to handle it as hazardous waste.
- Germany, Austria, Denmark and Sweden have banned the use of amalgam fillings.
- California requires all dental offices with a staff of 10+ that use mercury amalgam fillings to post the following warning, "The people of the state of California have determined that the use of dental amalgam causes birth defects and other health problems."
- The type of mercury produced by dental amalgams is associated with 258 symptoms, and copper (also found in amalgams) is associated with 100 symptoms.
- In 2008 the FDA lost a lawsuit and was required issue a warning to consumers about the neurological risks of silver dental fillings. The FDA complied, but after lobbying from the powerful company Henry Schein, the FDA removed the warning from the website and challenged the court ruling. Henry Schein is the largest silver dental amalgam distributor in the US and a large contributor to the FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, who served on Henry Schein’s board for 6 years.
- The FDA finally complied in July 2009 and now classifies amalgams as a Class II device. According to many well respected researchers that classification level is too low, and it should be classified at the maximum level of Class III.
- Studies have shown the number of silver dental fillings in a mother directly corresponds with the levels of mercury in the brain tissue of their fetus.
- Both the FDA and EPS have issued warnings about children and women of childbearing age eating mercury contaminated fish. The government isn’t concerned if men of postmenopausal women die from mercury poisoning.
- Large predatory fish like tuna and swordfish accumulate mercury and contain up to 100 times the mercury than in smaller fish.
- An investigation by the watchdog group GotMercury.org found that 75% of sushi in LA and San Diego were above internationally recognized mercury standards. Tuna and salmon were among the worst types of sushi.
- In January 2009 actor Jeremy Piven won a lawsuit against producers because he became ill from mercury poisoning by eating too much sushi.
- Many people are familiar with the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. The character was named after a condition suffered by hat makers in the 1800s. A solution containing mercury was used to turn fur into he felt used for hats. Contact and inhalation of the fumes caused “hatters’ shakes”, a serious illness due to mercury poisoning. The illness was also known as “Danbury Shakes”, named after a hat-making town in Connecticut where mercury poisoning caused horrible physical symptoms, often confused with alcohol intoxication.
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