Mercury Banned in Pesticides but not our teeth?

Albert Wilking ·

Mercury Banned in Pesticides but not our teeth?
The toxic effects of mercury depend on its chemical form and the route of exposure. Methylmercury is the most toxic form. It affects the immune system, alters genetic and enzyme systems, and damages the nervous system, including coordination and the senses of touch, taste, and sight. Methylmercury is particularly damaging to developing embryos, which are five to ten times more sensitive than adults. (reference)

Exposure to methylmercury is usually by ingestion, and it is absorbed more readily and excreted more slowly than other forms of mercury. Elemental mercury, Hg(0), the form released from broken thermometers, causes tremors, gingivitis, and excitability when vapors are inhaled over a long period of time.

Although it is less toxic than methylmercury, elemental mercury may be found in higher concentrations in environments such as gold mine sites, where it has been used to extract gold. If elemental mercury is ingested, it is absorbed relatively slowly and may pass through the digestive system without causing damage. Ingestion of other common forms of mercury, such as the salt HgCl2, which damages the gastrointestinal tract and causes kidney failure, is unlikely from environmental sources.

Wild life mortality of seed-eating birds and birds of prey caused by seed dressed with Hg compounds, alerted the Swedes and Finns in the 1960's about the risks of using Hg and also initiated studies revealing alarmingly high Hg content in fish caught close to paper and chlor-alkali industries. Acquired knowledge about environmental transformations of inorganic Hg to far more toxic organic forms along initially largely unknown transfer pathways focused the attention on the large quantities of Hg used in paper and chlor-alkali plants. Swedish authorities were first to act and enforced legislation on the use of Hg in Sweden, to avoid a tragedy such as that in Minamata, Japan. Consequently, seed dressing with methyl-Hg was prohibited in 1966, and Hg was banned from all pesticides in 1988.

Methylmercury is produced by methanogenic (TK) bacteria (that produce methane), some of the oldest living cells known, says Tom Clarkson, a toxicologist at the University of Rochester. When mercury is methylated through ingestion by microorganisms, a carbon atom is added on to the mercury atom. This additional atom is what changes mercury's properties, allowing it to be readily accumulated in fish. Once released from microorganisms, methylmercury rapidly diffuses, binding to proteins in living creatures.

U.S. Government Implies Only Mercury In Fish Causes Diabetes

Albert Wilking ·

I question whether the researchers had a control group with loads of mercury fillings in their mouths, or they researched whether or not their subjects were vaccine enthusiasts.

"Laboratory studies suggest that exposure to methylmercury at a level similar to those found in fish may induce pancreatic islet β-cell dysfunction. Few, if any, human studies have examined the association between mercury exposure and diabetes incidence. We examined whether toenail mercury levels are associated with incidence of diabetes in a large prospective cohort. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A prospective cohort of 3,875 American young adults, aged 20-32 years, free of diabetes in 1987 (baseline), were enrolled and followed six times until 2005. Baseline toenail mercury levels were measured with instrumental neutron-activation analysis. Incident diabetes was identified by plasma glucose levels, oral glucose tolerance tests, hemoglobin A1C levels, and/or antidiabetes medications."



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23423697

Aluminum and Mercury in Vaccines

Albert Wilking ·


  • Aluminum gels or salts of aluminum which are added as adjuvants to help the vaccine stimulate a better response. Adjuvants help promote an earlier, more potent response, and more persistent immune response to the vaccine.   
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  •  Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative that is added to vials of vaccine that contain more than one dose to prevent contamination and growth of potentially harmful bacteria.
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  •  Aluminum when combined with mercury in the body becomes an uber-neurotoxin.
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One night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury

Albert Wilking ·


‘One night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury': Syphilis and ‘Syphilophobes’ in Early Modern England

by The Chirurgeon's Apprentice


Skeleton (c. 18th century) showing signs of advance syphilis.
Before the discovery of penicillin in 1928, syphilis was an incurable disease. Its symptoms were as terrifying as they were unrelenting. Those who suffered from it long enough could expect to develop unsightly skin ulcers, paralysis, gradual blindness, dementia and ‘saddle nose‘, a grotesque deformity which occurs when the bridge of the nose caves into the face.
The seventeenth century was particularly rife with syphilis. Because of its prevalence, both physicians and surgeons treated syphilitic patients. Many treatments involved the use of mercury, hence giving rise to the saying: ‘One night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury’. Mercury could be administered in the form of calomel (mercury chloride), an ointment, a steam bath or pill. Unfortunately, the side effects could be as painful and terrifying as the disease itself. Many patients who underwent mercury treatments suffered from extensive tooth loss, ulcerations and neurological damage. In many cases, people died from significant mercury poisoning.
Given the nature of syphilis, as well as its therapeutic alternative, it is not a surprise that many people developed a phobia of the disease. ‘Syphilophobes’ feature frequently in seventeenth-century medical literature. Richard Wiseman, a surgeon from the period, writes: ‘These men will strangely imagine all the pains and other Symptoms they have read of, or have heard other men talk of. Many of these hypochondriack have come to [me]. They commonly went away…unsatisified, nor could they quiet their minds till they found some undertake that would comply with them’. [1]
When a surgeon or physician failed to provide the desired diagnosis, syphilophobes often turned to quacks, who frequently traded on the fears of their patients. Quacks promised quick and immediate cures for the syphilophobes’ imaginary symptoms. Wiseman naturally expressed his scepticism: these patients ‘were never the better, the imagination in which the Disease was seated remaining still uncured; whereupon presuming they were not in hands skilful enough, they have gone to others and so forwards, till they have ruined both their Bodies and Purses’. [2]
Today, syphilophobes are few and far between thanks to the wonders of penicillin; however, there are people who still suffer from a general fear of venereal diseases. Cypridophobia is named after the Greek island, Cyprus, where legend has it the Goddess, Venus, was born. Although it is rare, those who suffer from it can at least rest assured that ‘one night with Venus’ does not lead to a ‘lifetime with Mercury’ in this day and age.
1. Richard Wiseman, Eight Chirurgicall Treatises (1676).
2. Ibid.