Mercury

The FDA has, for decades, ridiculously insisted that mercury fillings pose no health threat whatsoever to children. While dismissing hundreds of studies showing a clear link between mercury amalgam fillings ("silver fillings") and disastrous neurological effects in the human body, the FDA denied the truth about mercury and effectively protected the mercury filling racket that has brought so much harm to so many people. For over a hundred years, a cabal of "mercury mongers" made up of the American Dental Association, mercury filling manufacturers and indignant dentists have reaped windfall profits by implanting toxic fillings into the mouths of children, all while insisting that mercury -- one of the most toxic heavy metals known to modern science -- posed no health threat whatsoever

How do mercury emissions affect pregnant mothers, the unborn and toddlers? Do the level of emissions impact autism rates? Does it matter whether a mercury-emitting source is 10 miles away from families versus 20 miles? Is the risk of autism greater for children who live closer to the pollution source?

Compact fluorescent lamps contain small amounts of toxic mercury that can vaporize when the bulbs break, creating a potential health risk for infants, young children, and pregnant women. If a lamp does break, follow these cleanup procedures:

Glen Beck interviews Steve Milloy about a woman in Maine whose solution to global warming was to use fluorescent light bulbs, which actually made things worse.

Though there are many natural sources of mercury emissions such as volcanoes, geothermal springs, geologic deposits and the ocean, human activities may have doubled or even tripled natural amounts of mercury in the atmosphere within the past 150 years. In fact, according to a U.S. Global Survey, human activities have caused the atmosphere's mercury content to rise by 1.5 percent a year; and the problem is global.

Elemental (metallic) mercury and its compounds are toxic and exposure to excessive levels can permanently damage or fatally injure the brain and kidneys. Elemental mercury can also be absorbed through the skin and cause allergic reactions. Ingestion of inorganic mercury compounds can cause severe renal and gastrointestinal toxicity. Organic compounds of mercury such as methyl mercury are considered the most toxic forms of the element. Exposures to very small amounts of these compounds can result in devastating neurological damage and death.

Mercury is toxic to the developing fetal brain and is a poison of growing concern to health authorities nationwide. When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's latest health advisory for mercury in seafood was issued in January 2001, the agency came under immediate fire from independent scientists and public health activists for failing to adopt the recommendations of a National Academy of Sciences study on mercury (NAS 2000), and for not providing pregnant women with complete information on what fish to avoid during pregnancy - particularly tuna.

Fish is beyond compare as a source of many nutrients vital to the developing infant, some of which may actually enhance development of the nervous system in babies and young children. Widespread contamination of fish with toxic mercury, however, has cast a shadow over the nutritional benefits of fish. Exposure to mercury in the womb can cause learning deficits, delay the mental development of children, and cause other neurological problems. Mercury consumed by a pregnant woman through contaminated fish can cross her placenta to damage the brain of her baby.