By Dr. Matsen
In previous Monthly Comments I’ve stated that many of my patients often resolve their chronic stubborn health problems after removing heavy metals, primarily mercury, from their bodies.
I’ve shown that Swedish and German autopsy studies have proven that mercury leaks from mercury fillings; even two-week-old fetuses have been shown to be accumulating mercury from their mothers’ fillings. Mercury has been, and is still being, used as a preservative—under the name of thimerosal—in vaccines, immunoglobulin shots, skin creams, contact lens solutions, and even today, in Dristan nasal mist.
A less direct source of mercury is exposure to airborne mercury, especially from coal-burning power plants emitting mercury into the atmosphere. While this airborne mercury is relatively insoluble, when it reacts with chlorine from the sea or industrial chemicals, the mercury becomes water-soluble and falls to the earth where bacteria transform it into methylmercury, which is more toxic. This mercury then works its way up the food chain.
In February of 2003, delegates from 130 countries met at a United Nations environmental conference in Nairobi, Kenya and agreed that “there is sufficient evidence of significant global adverse impacts from mercury and its compounds to warrant further international action to reduce the risks to human health and the environment.” However, the attempts of this conference to crack down on worldwide mercury pollution were stymied by the US because “instead of negotiating for years and spending millions of dollars on a global convention, we want quick action.” (New York Times, February 10, 2003)
On February 27, 2003, only a few weeks after the UN convention, the Bush administration introduced its “Clear Skies Initiative” which sounds like it would be the “quick action” that the US government wanted. The old act would have cut power plant mercury pollution by over 80 percent, from 48 tons at present, to 5 tons by 2008. However, the new “Clear Skies Initiative” would actually allow power plants to emit five times as much mercury and for a decade longer (from 2010 to 2018). Even after 2018, mercury emissions would be three times higher than at present.
Obviously the “Clear Skies Initiative” is that in name only and is actually a smokescreen to allow coal-burning power plants to give off even more mercury emission into the atmosphere.
A recent study in International Journal of Toxicology (July/August 2003: 22(4):277-89) shows that the ability of the body to eliminate mercury can play a critical role in one’s health. First-haircut samples were taken from newborns with mild, moderate, and severe autism, as well as from controls. The hair samples were tested for mercury levels and the autistic group showed 0.47 parts per million (ppm) while the controls showed 3.63 ppm.
In spite of the autistic children’s hair having lower levels of mercury, their mothers had received higher levels of mercury exposure through Rhogam immunoglobulin injections and amalgam fillings than the mothers of the control subjects.
This makes hair testing an inaccurate method to test for the presence of mercury in the body. Most important, it shows that some people have less ability to excrete mercury that is ever increasing in our environment. This inability to excrete high levels of mercury can contribute to autism.