http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ylnQ-T7oiA

The Mad Hatters Disease -inhaling mercury gave them the "SHAKES"
and insanity.

watch this from youtube!

Mercury on the Mind
by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD
by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD


Although they afflict widely different age groups, autism and Alzheimer’s disease share a common cause: mercury. Dr. Boyd Haley, professor and chair of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky, and Dr. Bernard Rimland, founder of the Autism Research Institute, presented evidence at this year’s Doctors for Disaster Preparedness meeting that connects mercury with these diseases.

This heavy metal is highly poisonous. A Dartmouth professor studying the chemical characteristics of an organic form of mercury – dimethyl mercury – spilled two drops of it on her gloved hand. The first sign of mercury poisoning occurred four months later when her speech began to be slurred. This was followed by difficulty walking and loss of vision. She then fell into a coma and died. Another person, attempting to smelt the silver in dental amalgams he obtained (they are 35 percent silver, 50 percent mercury, and 15 percent tin, zinc, and other metals), heated them in a frying pan. The mercury vapor thus generated killed him quickly. The two other family members in the house at the time also died.

Mercury is one proton (neutron and electron) heavier than gold – the atomic number of gold is 79; mercury, 80. It is distributed throughout the earth’s crust. Unlike other metals, mercury, in its elemental state, is liquid (molten) at room temperature. And it releases a steady stream of gaseous mercury atoms that linger in the atmosphere for months (eventually falling back to earth and its oceans in an inorganic form in rain drops). Even when in a solid state, combined with other metals as an alloy, mercury atoms continually escape into the atmosphere. Once added to latex paint, put in teething powder, used in making hats, as a fungicide on seeds, as an antiseptic (Merthiolate), and as a treatment for syphilis (the cure was worse than the disease), human exposure to mercury today comes principally from three sources: dental amalgams, vaccines, and fish.

Elemental mercury when released by a dental amalgam is inhaled and (80 percent of it) absorbed by the lungs and retained in the body. Vaccine makers add thimerosal (which is half ethyl mercury) to vaccines to prevent bacterial contamination. This injected organic form of mercury is readily taken up by brain and heart muscle cells. Fish harbor another organic form of mercury – methyl mercury, which is obtained from plankton that synthesize it from inorganic mercury extracted from the sea.


Currently the two most important sources of mercury exposure for Americans are dental amalgams and vaccinations. The Federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for reasons not explained, have chosen to ignore this fact. These agencies and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) focus exclusively on mercury in seafood, to the extent that the NIH will not fund studies that address mercury in amalgams and vaccines.

In lockstep with the government, the American Dental Association (ADA) claims that amalgams are safe, and the mercury in them poses no problem. The (government-funded) Institute of Medicine (IOM) and various specialty societies, notably the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and the American Medical Association (AMA), say the same thing about mercury in vaccines. There is growing evidence, however, that mercury in vaccines and amalgams cause both autism and Alzheimer’s disease. The CDC and the FDA and the medical establishment, led by its specialty societies, discount or ignore this evidence – evidence that includes privately funded epidemiological studies; research on how mercury damages brain cells grown in culture; animal studies in rodents, sheep, and primates; and clinical studies in children and adults.

Autism was discovered in 1943, in American children, twelve years after ethyl mercury (thimerosal) was added to the pertussis vaccine. (The disease was not seen in Europe until the 1950s, after thimerosal was added to vaccines used there.) In a typical case, shortly before his 2nd birthday a normally developing, healthy boy stops communicating with others and withdraws into himself. He avoids eye contact and becomes strange and aloof. His vision becomes blurred; and he develops various motor disturbances, such as involuntary jerking of the arms and legs and walking on his toes. In addition to these manifestations, Dr. Sallie Bernard and her colleagues, in a study titled, "Autism: A Unique Type of Mercury Poisoning," describe the speech difficulties, unusual behavior (such as unprovoked crying spells and head banging), various degrees of cognitive impairment, gastrointestinal difficulties, and immune difficulties that these autistic children can have. Mercury is most likely a causative factor in other developmental disorders as well, such as delayed speech and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Investigators have shown that there is a direct relationship between increasing doses of mercury in vaccines and autism. In the 1950s, with an immunization schedule limited to four vaccines (against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and smallpox), 1 in 10,000 children developed this disease. As vaccines for other diseases were added, health care providers began injecting increasingly larger doses of mercury into children. Those born in 1981 were given 135 micrograms of mercury (on average), and one case of autism occurred in every 2,600 children born that year. With the addition of hepatitis B vaccine (injected on the day of birth) and one for Haemophilus influenzae Type b, providers injected 246 micrograms of mercury into children born in 1996. Autism occurred in one out of every 350 of these children. Today, providers follow an immunization schedule, prepared by the CDC and approved by the AAP and AAFP, that includes 13 vaccines given, with variable numbers of booster shots, 33 times before a child reaches the age of 2 (when the development of the brain is completed). Autism now afflicts 1 in 100 boys and 1 in 400 girls, and physicians diagnose 100,000 new cases of this disease every year in the U.S (using diagnostic criteria, in the DSM-IV, that is more restrictive than the previous DSM-IIIR). Over the last 30 years more than one million children have come down with this disease, and currently one in every 68 families in America has an autistic child.

Mainstream medical journals, like Pediatrics and The New England Journal of Medicine, only publish studies that claim thimerosal is safe. And it turns out that these articles are written in large part by researchers in the pay of vaccine makers, as the Coalition for Safe Minds (Sensible Action For Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders), a private nonprofit organization, has shown. Editors of these journals will not publish studies that show a link between thimerosal and autism like "Thimerosal in Childhood Vaccines, Neurodevelopment Disorders, and Heart Disease in the United States" by Mark and David Geier, which documents a strong association between the amounts of mercury injected in vaccines and autism. Such articles can only find acceptance in alternative (i.e., "politically incorrect") journals like the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, where this one was published.

The amount of damage a given dose of mercury can do to the brain (and also the heart) depends on one’s age, sex, and genetically determined ability to excrete mercury. Young children with still developing brains are more susceptible, and males are more vulnerable to a given dose of mercury because testosterone enhances its neurotoxicity. Most important, however, is one’s genetically programmed ability to rid the body of mercury. The brain has a house-cleaning protein that removes dangerous waste products, which comes in three varieties: APO-E2, APO-E3, and APO-E4. The APO-E2 protein can carry 2 atoms of mercury out of the brain; APO-3, one; and AOP-E4, none. The genes we acquire from each parent determine which two we have. People with two APO-E4 proteins (and thus no APO-E2 or -E3) have an 80 percent chance of acquiring Alzheimer’s disease. And according to one study, autistic children have a huge preponderance of APO-E4 protein in their brains.

Alzheimer’s disease was discovered in 1906, again in America, where dentists used mercury-laden amalgams to fill cavities (dentists in Europe largely avoided them). Today, more than 4 million Americans now have Alzheimer’s disease. It afflicts half of people over the age of 85 and 20 percent aged 75 to 84.

The first symptoms of this disease are difficulty concentrating and variable degrees of memory loss, leading ultimately to devastating mental deterioration. The brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease shrink by 25 percent and have distinct pathologic hallmarks (neurofibillary tangles, amyloid plaques, and phosphorylation of tau protein). Brain cells grown in the laboratory develop the same three pathologic findings when exposed to nanomolar (3.6 × 10-10 molar) doses of mercury, an amount approximating that found in the brains of people who have a lot of amalgam fillings.

Dental amalgams are the main source of mercury in an adult’s brain. An average-sized amalgam filling contains 750,000 micrograms of mercury and releases around 10 micrograms a day. Researchers put radiolabelled mercury amalgams in the teeth of sheep and determined where escaped mercury went with a scanner. They showed that mercury atoms exhaled through the nose travel up filaments of the olfactory nerve to the hippocampus, which controls memory, and to other critical areas in the brain. In another study, rats given the same concentration of mercury that people inhale from their amalgams develop the pathologic markers of Alzheimer’s disease. People with Alzheimer’s disease have mercury levels in their brains that are 2 to 3 times higher than that seen in normal people.

The mercury in flu vaccines also plays a role in this disease. One investigator has found that people who received the flu vaccine each year for 3 to 5 years had a ten-fold greater chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease than people who had zero, 1, or 2 shots.

Another important factor with regard to mercury on the mind, which officials at the CDC, FDA and the professors in the IOM do not consider, is synergistic toxicity – mercury’s enhanced effect when other poisons are present. A small dose of mercury that kills 1 in 100 rats and a dose of aluminum that will kill 1 in 100 rats, when combined have a striking effect: all the rats die. Doses of mercury that have a 1 percent mortality will have a 100 percent mortality rate if some aluminum is there. Vaccines contain aluminum.

Why do officials at the CDC, FDA, and leaders of the medical and dental establishment discount or ignore all these important facts? Some of them being in the pay of vaccine makers is one reason. The specter of litigation for having sanctioned thimerosal and amalgams and, in the case of the FDA, not doing appropriate safety studies on them is another. But it is more complicated than that. The hypothesis that mercury causes autism and Alzheimer’s disease is a new truth. And as Schopenhauer points out (see my article on him), each new truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. And third, it is accepted as self-evident. The mercury truth is now in the second stage.

In the 1790s Edward Jenner observed that milk maids did not have pock marks on their faces, like people did who had contracted and survived smallpox. Milking cows with cowpox rendered them immune to smallpox. He took fluid from the pustules of infected cows, injected it into children, and found that it protected them, when exposed, from contracting smallpox. The medical establishment of the day dismissed the idea of vaccinating people with cow pus as nonsense; and Sir Joseph Banks, president of the British Royal Society (the IOM of the day), told Jenner that he would ruin his reputation if he tried to publish these findings, which were so much at variance with established knowledge. When other doctors and informed individuals like Thomas Jefferson recognized that "vaccination" did indeed work, its value was, in time, accepted as self-evident. Jenner’s vaccine saved millions of lives and eradicated a disfiguring disease that has a 30 percent mortality rate. (But laboratories in the U.S. and U.S.S.R. preserved the virus that causes smallpox, and we now know that Soviet microbiologists grew vast quantities of it in chicken eggs for use as a biological weapon of mass destruction.)

Today the medical establishment, led by the AAP, AAFP, AMA, CDC, and IOM, has gone to the other extreme. The accepted wisdom now is that vaccines are a panacea. Health care providers start injecting them in infants on the day of birth, and government officials seek to have them made mandatory for all Americans. But some little-discussed facts belie their value. Deaths from diphtheria, for example, declined 90 percent from 1900 to 1930, due to better sanitation and nutrition, before there was a vaccine for this disease. Likewise, the death rate for measles declined 95 percent (13.3 to 0.03 deaths per 100,000 population) between 1915 and 1958, before the vaccine for measles vaccine was introduced in 1963. Viewed from a risk/benefit perspective, providers and government officials downplay the deleterious effects that vaccines can have on one’s health and inflate their benefits. The top medical textbook on the subject is Vaccines, edited by Drs. Plotkin and Orenstein. In the 1999 3rd Edition that I reviewed (a slightly longer 4th Edition was published last year), its authors confine their discussion of mercury in vaccines to two short paragraphs in this 1,230-page book. They do not address concerns that have been raised about its neurotoxicity.

Vaccine manufacturers have started removing thimerosal from vaccines. And for the first time since the state began keeping records on this disease, California has had a decrease,of 6 percent, in the annual number of children over the age of 3 who have been diagnosed with autism. This occurred in children born in 2000, when the phase-out of thimerosal in vaccines began. Iowa has passed a law banning thimerosal in that state, and California has done the same thing for pregnant women and children under 3 (the bill awaits the governor’s signature). But pharmaceutical companies still add thimerosal in their Flu vaccines; and pediatricians are vaccinating children with their remaining supply of thimerosal-containing vaccines, which the FDA has chosen not to recall.

Taking mercury out of vaccines would substantially reduce the incidence of autism, but this alone will not eliminate the disease. Giving too many vaccines over too short a time to infants whose nervous system is not yet fully developed can also trigger autism and its spectrum of disorders. As Dr. Blaylock has shown (see Recommended Reading below), multiple vaccines given close together over-stimulate the brain’s immune system and, via the mechanism of "bystander injury," destroy brain cells.

Avoiding flu shots that contain thimerosal, and having dentists stop implanting mercury amalgams in people’s mouths would lower the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. If you have amalgam fillings, particularly if there is a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, you might consider having them removed. Be sure to have a dentist do it who follows the protocol established by The International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology for safely removing them.

For the third source of mercury, follow the CDC’s advice and don’t eat mercury-contaminated fish, especially if you are pregnant because mercury in your bloodstream crosses the placenta and is concentrated in the fetus’ brain.

Recommended Reading – in addition to the online links provided above

An excellent review of thimerosal and autism, titled "Mercury in Medicine – Taking Unnecessary Risks," is to be found, of all places, in the Congressional Record. Prepared by its Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness, this report was presented to the Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Dan Burton (who has an autistic grandson). Congressional Record, May 21, 2003, E1011–E1030.

SafeMinds president, Lyn Redwood, presented testimony at a Congressional hearing held on September 8, 2004 that exposes malfeasance by the CDC and FDA related to thimerosal. It is titled "Truth Revealed: New Scientific Discoveries Regarding Mercury in Medicine and Autism" and is posted on their website, safeminds.org. See also this organization’s 84-page Report to Congress titled, "A Brief Analysis of Recent Efforts in Medical Mercury Induced Neurological and Autism Spectrum Disorders" (September 8, 2004).

"The Three Modern Faces of Mercury" – in fish, vaccines, and dental amalgams – by Thomas Clarkson in Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 110 | Supplement 1 | February 2002 | pages 11–23. This study provides an current-day perspective on mercury exposure, post Calomel, Merthiolate, and Mad Hatters.

If your dentist parrots the American Dental Association stance on this subject and says that "silver" – i.e., mercury – amalgams are perfectly safe, insist that he or she read Dr. Boyd Haley’s response to the president of the ADA on his defense of dental amalgams. It is posted on this website. I sent it to my dentist who I had been going to for a number of years. When he chose to ignore it, I changed dentists – to a mercury-free one and had him remove all my amalgam fillings.

"Mercury: the Silent Killer," Chapter 3 in Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Lifeby Russell L. Blaylock, M.D. As a board-certified neurosurgeon, Dr. Blaylock, like me, is a member of the medical establishment. He now, however, studies and writes about wellness and complementary/alternative medicine on a full-time basis.

Are Vaccines Safe and Effective?by Neil Z. Miller (2002). This 78-page (paperback) book is well worth reading, especially if you have children or if you are being pressured to get a flu shot.

For a comprehensive review, with 167 scientific references, on how vaccines damage infants’ and soldiers’ brains (Gulf War Syndrome) when given too close together, see Dr. Blaylock’s "Interaction of Cytokines, Excitotoxins, Reactive Nitrogen and Oxygen Species in Autism Spectrum Disorders" in the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association (JANA 2003;6[4]:21–35). See also his study, "Chronic Microglial Activation and Excitotoxicity Secondary to Excessive Immune Stimulation: Possible Factors in GulfWar Syndrome and Autism" in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JAPS 2004;9[2]:46–52). Dr. Blaylock has written a simplified version of these studies for the general public titled "Vaccines: the Hidden Dangers," in his Blaylock Wellness Report (Vol. 1, No. 1), which is published monthly and can be purchased online.

September 29, 2004

Donald Miller (send him mail) is a cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle and a member of Doctors for Disaster Preparednessand writes articles on a variety of subjects for LewRockwell.com, including bioterrorism.His web site is www.donaldmiller.com.

Copyright © 2004 LewRockwell.com

Donald Miller Archives








Find this article at:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller14.html

http://www.calpoison.org/public/mercury.html

Mercury and its Many Forms
Broken thermometers are the cause of numerous calls to the Poison Center. Thermometers with a silver line contain elemental mercury. Thermometers with a red or blue liquid do NOT contain mercury. There is much misinformation about mercury, its various forms and its dangers. Three different types of mercury exist, varying in their levels of toxicity. They are elemental mercury, inorganic mercury and organic mercury.



Elemental mercury
Mercury is an extremely heavy, odorless, silver colored liquid. Mercury exists as a natural element in the earth's crust. Elemental mercury is also known as metallic mercury, liquid mercury, liquid silver and quicksilver.



What are sources of exposure to elemental mercury?
Sources of elemental mercury in the home include broken mercury thermometers, broken fluorescent light bulbs, dental amalgam fillings, mercury containing latex paints, extraction of gold from ore using mercury, and contaminated clothing from workers in thermometer making plants. Elemental mercury is also used as a Mexican folk medicine to treat "empacho," a chronic stomach disorder.



How toxic is elemental mercury?
Of all the forms of mercury, elemental mercury is the most commonly swallowed form of mercury, usually from a broken thermometer. Fortunately, elemental mercury from a thermometer is not absorbed from the stomach and will not cause any poisoning in a healthy person. In a healthy person, the slippery swallowed mercury will roll into the stomach, out in to the bowels and will be quickly eliminated without causing any symptoms. A person with severe inflammatory bowel disease or those with a fistula (hole or opening) in their gut may have problems with mercury if it is not all cleared out, resulting in prolonged exposure. Handling liquid mercury for a very short period of time usually does not result in any problems. An allergic rash is possible, though. Mercury is not well absorbed across the skin so skin contact is not likely to cause mercury poisoning, especially with a brief one-time exposure. Even if a person has cuts in their skin, mercury is too heavy to be contained by a cut. Merely washing the wound well will wash the mercury out of the wound.



Can elemental mercury be dangerous?
Inhalation of elemental mercury vapors is the main cause of toxicity, as mercury is well absorbed by the lungs. To develop problems by inhalation you need either a large one-time exposure or a long-term exposure. A small, one-time exposure is not likely to cause problems.
What are the symptoms?

After a large, one-time inhalation exposure of mercury vapor, the lungs are the main target of mercury poisoning, although other symptoms develop as well. Symptoms may develop within a few hours and include chills, metallic taste, mouth sores, swollen gums, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, headache, weakness, confusion, shortness of breath, cough, chest tightness, bronchitis, pneumonia and kidney damage.

How does long-term exposure differ from a short-term exposure?

Long-term exposure (usually work-related) of inhaled vapors is generally more dangerous than a one-time short exposure. After long-term inhalation exposure, the nervous system is the main target of toxicity. Symptoms may occur within weeks but usually develop insidiously over a period of years. Neurologic symptoms include tremors, headaches, short-term memory loss, incoordination, weakness, loss of appetite, altered sense of taste and smell, numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, insomnia, and excessive sweating. Psychiatric effects are also seen after long-term exposure. Acrodynia can result from repeated exposures to mercury-containing latex paint fumes. Acrodynia is usually seen in younger children. The symptoms include chills, sweating, body rash, irritability, sleeplessness, leg cramps, swelling of the cheeks, nose, hands and feet, light-sensitivity to the eyes and peeling skin layers on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.




Inorganic Mercury
Inorganic mercury compounds are known as "mercuric salts." Some of the mercuric salts include: mercuric chloride, mercuric iodide, mercuric nitrate, mercuric sulfide, yellow mercuric oxide, red mercuric oxide, ammoniated mercury, mercurous chloride and mercurous acetate.
What are sources of inorganic mercury compounds?

Some folk medicines from outside the United States contain high amounts of mercury that can cause mercury poisoning. Two common mercury compounds are calomel and cinnabar.

Chinese herbal drugs with measurable amounts of mercury include: Chinese herbal ball preparations containing both mercury and arsenic include:

An Gong Niu Huang Wan
Da Huo Luo Wan
Dendrobium Moniliforme Night Sight pills
Niu Huang Chiang Ya Wan
Niu Huang Chiang Hsin Wan
Ta Huo Lo Tan
Tsai Tsao Wan
Indian and Mexican folk medications containing mercury include:
Creme de Belleza-Manning
Tainan
Ping-tong
Sin-chu



What are the symptoms of inorganic mercury poisoning?
Inorganic mercuric salts are corrosive and they damage the kidneys. Following ingestion, symptoms include nausea, vomiting blood, burns and tissue death in the throat and stomach, abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea, decreased urination and kidney failure.
Long-term application of mercury-containing substances causes skin redness and staining of the skin. More severe symptoms include nerve damage resulting in weakness, numbness and tingling.




Organic Mercury
What are sources of organic mercury?
Organic mercury compounds are found in a variety of products. They are used medically as fungicides and antibacterials. The most common organic mercury compounds in the home may well be mercurochrome (merbromin) and merthiolate (thimerosal), two common antiseptics. Fortunately, small ingestions by children rarely cause major problems.

What is the most common source of organic mercury poisoning?

In the general population, the main source of mercury poisoning is the ingestion of mercury- contaminated food, usually fish. When lake, river or ocean water is contaminated with methyl-mercury compounds, the mercury accumulates and magnifies in the flesh of the fish. Organic mercury concentrations can be more than 1,000 times greater in the fish than in the surrounding water. People who eat fish as a main component of their diet may be at risk. If a river or lake is known to be polluted with mercury, fish eaters are warned to decrease their weekly intake of fish.

What are the signs and symptoms of organic mercury poisoning?

Organic mercury compounds are very damaging. They are toxic by ingestion, inhalation, and skin and eye contact. These mercury compounds can attack all body systems. They can cause nausea, vomiting, lack of appetite, weight loss, abdominal pain, diarrhea, kidney failure, skin burns and irritation, respiratory distress, swollen gums and mouth sores, drooling, numbness and tingling in the lips, mouth, tongue, hands and feet, tremors and incoordination, vision and hearing loss, memory loss, personality changes and headache. Allergic reactions can also occur.

Methyl-mercury, usually from contaminated food, is very dangerous to pregnant women. Methyl-mercury causes profound mental retardation, cerebral palsy, seizures, spasticity, tremors, and incoordination, along with eye and hearing damage in the unborn baby as a result of the mother's exposure. Organic mercury passes into the breast milk as well.




How is mercury poisoning diagnosed and treated?
Because the number of symptoms is so great and the variety of symptoms is so wide, anyone could pick out at least two or three symptoms at any given time. If you have any doubt and if you have been or are exposed to mercury compounds, see a physician and get tested. Testing is the only definite way to determine if mercury is the cause of the symptoms.
Mercury poisoning can be diagnosed by special blood and urine collection tests. If levels are high, there is treatment. Medication can be administered to help bind the mercury and increase elimination. Symptoms do not always correspond to blood mercury levels: Many patients with high levels do not have severe symptoms.

If mercury blood levels are going to be tested, it is important NOT to eat any seafood products for at least 30 hours before testing. Even a single meal of seafood can elevate mercury blood levels for as long as 20 to 30 hours after eating. Eating seafood will cause misleading high levels.




How do I safely clean up a small spill of elemental mercury?
Many people have called the Poison Center asking how to clean up the mercury from a broken mercury thermometer. It is important to know that there are several ways NOT to clean up a mercury spill as it can make the situation worse. There are also several ways to safely clean up the mercury spill.



What never to do about a mercury spill:
Never sweep the area with a broom. Sweeping breaks the mercury into smaller droplets, further contaminating the room and the broom.
Never use an ordinary household vacuum cleaner to clean up mercury. Vacuuming vaporizes the mercury and increases the concentration of mercury in the air that can result in poisoning.
Never pour mercury down the sink drain. It may stay in the plumbing.
Never wash mercury contaminated clothes in the washing machine. Mercury can contaminate the washing machine.
Never walk around if your shoes or socks may be contaminated with mercury. That will spread the mercury droplets all over the house.
Never use household cleaning products to clean the spill, particularly products that contain ammonia or chlorine. These chemicals will react violently with mercury, releasing a toxic gas.


How do I clean up a spill from a broken thermometer?
Before beginning the clean up, change into old clothes and shoes that can be thrown away if they get contaminated with mercury. NOTE: If you are wearing gold jewelry, either remove the jewelry or wear good protective gloves. If the liquid mercury contacts the gold jewelry, the mercury bonds permanently to the gold and ruins it. Wearing gloves is a good idea to prevent mercury from lodging under the fingernails while cleaning.
Increase ventilation in the room with outside air and close the room off from the rest of the house. If available, use fans for at least one hour to help ventilate the room.
Pick up the mercury with an eyedropper or scoop up beads with a piece of heavy paper (e.g., playing cards, index cards).
Wide sticky tape such as duct tape can also be used to pick up any glass particles and mercury beads.
Powdered sulfur (which can be purchased at garden supply stores) can be used to bind any remaining mercury. When the sulfur combines with mercury the sulfur turns from the usual yellow color to brown. Continue to use sulfur until there is no longer a color change. Keep in mind that sulfur can be irritating to the skin, nose, throat and eyes. Sulfur may also stain fabrics.
Place the mercury, contaminated instruments (dropper/heavy paper) and any broken glass in a plastic zipper bag. Place this zipper bag in a second zipper bag and then in a third zipper bag (triple bag), tightly sealing each bag with tape. Place the bags in a wide-mouth, sealable plastic container.
Throw away everything that may have been exposed to the mercury including towels, bedding, clothes if they were contaminated.
Call your local health department for the nearest approved mercury disposal location. If disposal at such a location is not possible, dispose of the plastic container according to state and local requirements.
If weather permits, leave windows open for approximately two days to make sure the area is completely ventilated.
Wash hands very well with soap and water afterwards. Shower well if you think any mercury touched other parts of your body.


What if mercury falls into my sink?
If mercury enters into a sink full of water, the mercury will sink to the bottom. Remove as much water as possible without disturbing the mercury and them recover the mercury with an eyedropper. Place in a wide mouth container, close the lid and seal it with tape. Label it as mercury waste and call your state agency for appropriate disposal.
If mercury enters a drain it will get caught in your sink trap. Working over a tray, remove the trap and pour the contents into a large mouth container. Close the lid and seal it with tape. Label it as mercury waste and call your state agency for appropriate disposal.

Regardless of the method used for cleanup, there is very little risk of danger if the area is well ventilated. A spill of a large mount of mercury that is not immediately cleaned up can be a problem if family members breathe the mercury vapor.




What if I have a large mercury spill?
A spill of a large amount of mercury (more than the amount of mercury in a household fever thermometer) can be dangerous to all members of the household including pets because of the mercury vapors in the air of the house. Most likely a hazardous material team will be required to do a professional clean up. Seal off the area and have all family members including pets leave the area. Call the fire department in your area for advice. Usually professional clean up is expensive but the health and safety of the family is worth it.



Are there alternatives to using mercury thermometers?
Several types of non-mercury thermometers are available commercially. These include:
Digital electronic thermometers
Glass alcohol thermometers
All of the above thermometers, like mercury thermometers, can be used to take oral, rectal or axillary (armpit) temperature. Digital electronic fever thermometers are readily available at retailers. There are also digital basal thermometers for family planning that can be used instead of mercury basal thermometers. Alcohol thermometers are currently not as easy to find. In addition, consumers can choose:
Ear canal thermometers
Flexible forehead thermometers
Talk to your physician, pediatrician or other health care provider about which type of thermometer he or she recommends that you have in your home for taking temperatures.



Where can I take my mercury thermometer to dispose of it safely?
When disposing of mercury thermometers, make sure you dispose of them properly in a household hazardous waste collection. If you have questions, contact your state environmental protection department, health department or Environmental Protection Agency.
Updated January 25, 2002



California Poison Control System
1-800-222-1222. . Anytime, Anyplace in California

I am making a dentist appt ASAP. I have a lot of old mercury fillings. Ack

http://www.virtustate.com/stories/storyReader$1352
Rapid Degeneration of neurons in the presence of Mercury:


I have five mercury -amalgam fillings waiting to be removed!

When I watched the film - the first thing I thought of was Mad Hatters Syndrome - which caused alot of PD like symptoms,
I put the article in the Dental info forum on "Neurotalk".

I believe heavy metal toxicity is in our fillings and the flouride and the flourecent bulbs!



more reading here:
The following article by Dr. Donald Miller quotes Dr. Boyd Haley, nationally prominent mercury researcher, referencing autism as "Mad Child Disease".

http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller14.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller14.html

CTenaLouise,
When I was at University, age about 24, my Prof. told me to make and study a compound bis(trimethylsilyl)mercury. This was very reactive, and a very unstable compound. I had to handle it very carefully since it was so unstable, that oxygen and light caused it to decompose into free radicals, trimethlsilyl radicals and free liquid mercury.
(Me3Si)2Hg----------> 2Me3Si. + Hg
I had to examine the reactions of this highly reactive free radical, to prove it was indeed a free radical and it was extremely dangerous.
I wrote a thesis of over 200 pages, fpr which I got a Ph.D, and probably PD,
These free radicals together with substantial amounts of free liquid mercury
were not recognised to be as toxic at that time, as we now know they are.
In addition, I have most teeth filled with mercury amalgam, and I hesitate to get them removed, since you suffer an enormous cloud of mercury when they are drilled out. I am doing so well with my current treatment,I hesitate to tempt fate and have them changed.
Ron

Ron, is there no way to safely extract them. Sorry to hear what happened to you by working with mercury.

Brianna can you chime in and let us know if there is a safe way to extract?

I read that there are specialists that do it- probably would need to verify that they are legit and proper care is taken.

I think you can get blood tested for it to see if they are leaching the mercury or not. If they are stable and "sealed" {not leaching} might be best to not stir things up.

It's been a couple years since I read up about this so I could be wrong.

Ok I had to do my Google thing -
http://www.google.com/search?q=mercu...ient=firefox-a

most of our amalgam fillings need removal.
My dentists is from England, and has taught dentistry around the world,
he and his wife also live in Austrailia...
I told him - I did not want my teeth filled with amalgam fillings,
because of the "biting on rocks -from a restaurant" -
he gave me 2 of the most lovely and most excellently dental precedures
I have ever had - paid - I am very thankful for the restaurants insurance...

He said, he will never use amalgam fillings, because it is old poor dentristry.

dear Ron,
I am so sorry to hear this!
I have another friend to whom was testing a bad drug -they too a chemist,
and a very brilliant one, and s/he worked for big pharma?
must keep very confidential...
I am having mine out because they are leaching, and have cavities under the amalgam?
peace to you dear Ron.

what timing- there is 2 posts about this very topic on the Health News Headlines forum- I just posted the links don't have time to read them right now -but says they are OK'd by court ruling ??

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=17503
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=17505

Had the last of mine out about a year ago and will try to remember what I learned. You do have to be careful about who does it and get someone who knows the right way. You might ask at your local health food store if in a big city.

Ask how much experience the dentist has had with the removal and just what does he do to ensure the patient's safety. If he or she is the right one, among other things he will use a rubber dam to catch the particles. This is simply a sheet of rubber stretched across the back of your mouth like a trampoline to keep you from swallowing the old amalgam.

They should also use positive air flow through a nose mask to keep you from inhaling the vapors as the work progresses. If you are in really good hands he will start talking about the importance of chelating agents to latch onto the molecules that get by and then transport them to the kidneys. I think that I remember green tea extract and alpha lipoic acid as chelators and possibly acetyl-l-carnitine and l-carnosine, too. But go to Medline and confirm that.

Ron is right. If your fillings are old it might be best to leave them alone and really look into chelating agents. And I fear that blood tests are of limited value overall as mercury lodges in tissue such as the brain and so "disappears".

One thing for sure, do not let them put any into your kid's mouth and think hard about what vaccines are really needed. There is something terrible loose in the land. Autism and such rates are going through the roof and methyl mercury is a prime candidate.