Recycling, Mercury and Your Health

Does anyone ever gain personally from making the effort to recycle? It’s so time consuming. Can’t I just chunk it?

Only a few short years ago the message about recycling centered mostly on conservation, recovery and reuse. Saving ourself and our planet from environmental toxins was part of the benefit, but low on our list for reasons why. Now, with recognition of a rise in the rate of degenerative diseases plus the spiraling costs of health care, the effect that environmental toxins is having on our health, our food supply, and the world points to the need to now emphasize health.

Yes, but in what way does this pertain to me and my family?

The US Government has asked similar questions, demanding straight answers to this larger, more personal reality. To get to the bottom of it a grant was provided that turned out to be the most money ever spent by our government on looking at the health of so few test subjects.

In Phase I of the study 9 high profile individuals were screened…people who you may recognize. At the onset each had no confirmed diseases and declared their self to be healthy. Upon examining the chemistry, however, for environmental toxins it was found that every person tested had at least 70 of 200 toxins, and that some had well over 100.

In Phase II the researchers looked at children and found similar results. In Phase III they looked at cord blood from the newborn of parents from a broad range of socioeconomic background and location. Again, no matter what a person ‘s background, the toxins in cord blood was similar to what was found in adults.

So, it is no longer a question of who is being exposed to these toxins. Everyone on earth is today exposed even as they are born, rich and poor alike…a reality of the modern human condition. The larger question centers on who is being affected to the point of causing health-related problems and what steps can we take to reduce the risk of further exposure?

Mercury, which is the most toxic of all heavy metals, provides a really good place to begin any program for reducing our toxic exposure. Unlike most other toxins, which will ultimately degrade to less toxic forms (upon being discharged into the environment), mercury remains toxic even as it changes its chemical form. Too, it is more pervasive than other toxins. However it is discarded, in whatever chemical form, whether into a landfill, into water, or into the atmosphere, mercury in some alternate form will eventually makes its way back into living systems, humans included. So, the fact that it is toxic, persistent, and pervasive makes it the one and only environmental toxin that just never goes away.

So, the careful recovery, reuse, and controlled storage of mercury represents the best place to begin any program aimed at reducing our inadvertent exposure to this most toxic of toxins.

But how could mercury be so toxic when just about everyone played with it as a child and lived to tell about it? Didn’t everyone play with those little beads of mercury and rub it on dime until it shined better than new? The truth is: We would all have more respect for mercury if it had killed us upon contact. Fortunately, it didn’t, and doesn’t. Rather, its effect is gradual, accumulative, and subtle.

Mercury begins its slow, disease-causing march by altering protein absorption, assimilation, and function. Eventually, because of its effect on protein, it amplifies the toxicity of the total of all of our exposures. The time it takes (in some people) for symptoms to appear is measured in years. In those who may be underweight or who may have a higher protein demand, symptoms often appear in youth. Regardless, once the threshold is reached a wide range of symptoms can occur, including skin rash, food allergies, fatigue, arthritis, numbness, mental fog, panic disorders, and heart irregularity. The possibilities are long and often quite disabling.

Why, you ask, are the symptoms so varied? This occurs because of the nature of mercury, which will attach anywhere in the body where there is a cysteine residue. Cysteine is one of the essential amino acids that is required in the diet and used in virtually every organ and system of the body. Interference in its function, then, will offer the means for altering human functioning in a much broader way than most any other toxin.

If poisoned with mercury, doctors are well equipped to make the diagnosis. However, when the accumulation is gradual (as is the general case) then the intruder may not be recognized. To assist them IHR trains doctors to identify what we have come to refer to as The Toxic Footprints of Mercury, which can be readily seen on a comprehensive blood chemistry profile. A treatment plan can then be tailored to fit a person’s individual circumstance.

Given the evidence, it now clear that the proper discarding mercury-containing fluorescent lighting, which is today one of the most popular forms of indoor lighting in industry, is an important step towards keeping our environment safe for ourselves and for our children. And, with regard to your own encounter with mercury, a quote from an unknown author seems most appropriate. “May you never know what it is you are trying to prevent”.