Mercury poisoning of our mind, body and the planet

The term “mad as a hatter” will forever be linked to the madcap milliner in Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s book, Alice in Wonderland. But few actually know that the true origin of the saying relates to a disease peculiar to the hat making industry in the 1800′s. A mercury solution was commonly used during the process of turning fur into felt, which caused the hatters to breathe in the fumes of this highly toxic metal, a situation exacerbated by the poor ventilation in most of the workshops. This led in turn to an accumulation of mercury in the workers’ bodies, resulting in symptoms such as trembling (known as “hatters’ shakes”), loss of coordination, slurred speech, loosening of teeth, memory loss, depression, irritability and anxiety – ”The Mad Hatter Syndrome.” The phrase is still used today to describe the effects of mercury poisoning, albeit from other sources.

These days, we are infinitely more aware of the deadly toxicity of mercury exposure, yet mercury remains more common than one might think. Mercury can be found in our cars, homes, food, medicine cabinets — even in our mouths. The biggest challenge with diagnosing heavy metal toxicity is its indolent, slow, smoldering effect that never lets the affected know that mercury is the root of the problem. Exposure to mercury begins in the womb, where the mother transfers mercury to the fetus through the placenta. Once the fetus is out of the uterus, there are many ways for mercury levels to begin to accumulate.

Power plants in America emitted 134,365 pounds of mercury pollution in 2009, according to the new Environment Americareport, ‘Dirty Energy’s Assault on Our Health: Mercury.’ The report found that power plants in just four states – Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia – are responsible for over 35 percent of all mercury pollution from power plants in the United States.

In the late 1990s the estimates for coal-fired plants stood closer to 50 tons or 100,000 pounds, so Americans have been living through a 30 percent increase in the past decade or so. Globally the count is worse because China alone has been putting on the electrical grid one new coal-fired plant after another. India also has been expanding its industrial base rapidly using much more coal.

At the same time we have some nightmare reports about recent dramatic rises in the incidence of diabetes but of course no one is connecting the dots between increasing mercury exposure and the diabetes pandemic. The number of diabetics in the United States has grown to nearly 26 million, a 10 percent increase over 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in January 2010.
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