Mercury In Tuna

December 8, 2010 By




from cnn.com

Younger women and children should limit the amount of tuna they eat and pregnant women should not eat tuna at all, because of mercury levels found in the canned and packaged fish, says new report in the January 2011 issue of Consumer Reports.

Albacore or white tuna usually contains far more mercury than light tuna, according to Consumer Reports , and canned tuna is the most common source of mercury in our diet.

In order to test current levels, investigators for the periodical tested 42 samples from cans and pouches of tuna bought mostly in the New York City area. They found all the samples contained measurable levels of mercury, ranging from 0.018 to 0.774 parts per million. Samples of white tuna had 0.217 to 0.774 ppm of mercury and averaged 0.427 ppm. According to Consumer Reports, if a woman of childbearing age ate about half a can of any of the tested samples, she would exceed the daily mercury intake the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe.

The Food and Drug Administration and the EPA guidelines indicate women of childbearing age and young children may eat up to 12 ounces a week of light tuna or other “low in mercury” seafood, including, within that limit, up to 6 ounces per week of white tuna. But Consumer Reports believes that may be too much. Because mercury can cause defects to the nervous system during fetal development, Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, advises pregnant women, as a precaution, to avoid eating tuna. It also advises that children who weigh more than 45 pounds limit their intake to 12.5 ounces of light tuna or 4 ounces of white tuna per week, and children who weigh less than 45 pounds consume no more than 4 ounces of light tuna or 1.5 ounces of white tuna.

Some critics, including fish producers, say Consumer Reports is overblowing the research.

“Consumer Reports’ suggestion that pregnant women limit the amount of fish they eat, outside of the FDA’s four fish to avoid, is reckless and has the potential to harm public health,” says the National Fisheries Institute in a statement “Peer-reviewed science shows that pregnant women who limit or avoid seafood may actually be introducing risks from omega-3 deficiency. Advising pregnant women to cut canned tuna out of their diet and for others to limit their consumption based merely on a magazine’s editorial opinion is irresponsible.”

But Consumer Reports is asking for change. Due to the results of the investigation, the publication’s editors are asking the FDA strengthen its current guidance and advise pregnant women to avoid tuna altogether. The group also believes the FDA should continue to test for mercury in seafood across the country, and provide U.S. consumers updated information on mercury levels in fish, as well as diet alternatives

“Fortunately, it’s easy to choose lower-mercury fish that are also rich in healthful omega-3 fatty acids,” says Dr. Urvashi Rangan, director of Technical Policy, at Consumers Union. “That’s especially important for women who are pregnant or might become pregnant, nursing mothers, and young children, because fetuses and youngsters are still developing their nervous systems and are therefore at particular risk from methylmercury’s neurotoxic effects.”

Lower mercury seafood includes shrimp, crab and cod.

COMMENT: and yet so many ‘experts’ continue to insist mercury is ‘ok’ in things like silver dental fillings, hmmm.

Filed Under: Mercury Poisoning Tagged With: , ,

Valley doctor says moms can help prevent autism before and during pregnancy

June 22, 2010 By




PHOENIX – A Valley doctor is using her own experience to research autism solutions.

Dr. Cindy Schneider isn’t just a doctor.

She is also the mother of two children with autism.

“They were eventually diagnosed at age 2 ½ and 3 ½ and at that point we also had a 7-month-old baby,” said Dr. Schneider.

Their diagnosis and a lack of research lead her to her life’s work, The Center for Autism Research and Development in Phoenix.

Dr. Schneider follows a theory that is becoming more widely accepted in the medical community.

“The genes are the gun, the environment is the trigger,” said Dr. Schneider.

Based on that she says there are some things mothers can do to reduce their risk of having a child develop autism.

“I think it’s a good idea to have some nutritional testing prior to conception. Things like vitamin D levels, protein levels.

Schneider recommends families that have allergies; auto immune disease and asthma take precautions.

“There’s so many simple things you can do, like take omega 3 fatty acids, check your vitamin D level, eat healthy, exercise, get to your normal weight prior to conception.”

She stresses avoiding chemicals both before and during pregnancy, as well as keeping them from babies and small children.

One chemical she believes is particularly harmful.

“Really avoid mercury in particular. Things like high mercury fish for example, or the silver fillings that really are 50 percent mercury and probably should be called mercury fillings,” said Schneider.

Thanks in part to the research she’s done her children are making remarkable progress.

“It’s benefited my children greatly it’s benefited my patients greatly, so it’s been a strange life, but I’m very happy doing what I’m doing.

She hopes someday other families won’t have the same struggles.

Filed Under: Autism Tagged With: ,

FDA: Looks At Mercury In Dental Fillings

June 19, 2010 By




The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking another look at the risks of mercury in dental fillings, raising hopes among local activists that more stringent regulations will be put in place.

The FDA said Thursday that an advisory panel would hold hearings from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 14-15 at a Holiday Inn in Gaithersburg, Md., focusing specifically “on the potential risk to vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women, fetuses and young children.”

“I’m thrilled by this,” said Amanda Just of Waterford, one of several Connecticut residents who have written the FDA to urge a ban on amalgam fillings, which contain mercury. “I’m trying not to get my hopes up, though, because … (dental-industry advocates) always get around it somehow.”

The agency previously had issued a temporary warning on amalgam fillings for pregnant women and young children, but rescinded the action in July 2009 as it issued labeling requirements slightly more stringent than previously in place.

At least four subsequent petitions to the FDA protested the agency’s decision.

One of the petitions, signed by the International Academy of Oral Medicine, among other groups and individuals, called the decision “a denial of consumers’ fundamental right to know that a neurotoxin is being placed in their bodies.”

It added that “Only inappropriate industry influence can explain a rule that is so inconsistent with not only FDA’s mission, but our national policies and values. … Such callous gambling with the next generation’s health inexplicably defies the anti-mercury public record and campaign promises of the President of the United States.”

The petition charged that FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, who recused herself from the amalgam ruling, “was believed to have (an) intertwining relationship with dental products colossus Henry Schein Inc.” The document, available on the FDA’s website, stated that Hamburg served on the company’s board of directors, receiving more than $500,000 from Schein during the two years prior to her appointment as commissioner and continuing to hold stock options up to a day before the final amalgam decision.

“Hamburg’s evasiveness about her role in the amalgam rule indates that the rule is tainted,” according to the petition.

The FDA in its 2009 ruling left it up to dentists to decide whether to tell patients about the presence of mercury in amalgam, despite studies showing that most people don’t know fillings contain the toxic agent.

“While elemental mercury has been associated with adverse health effects at high exposures, the levels released by dental amalgam fillings are not high enough to cause harm in patients,” the FDA ruled at the time.

Just, who had all her fillings removed after suffering from mercury poisoning, continues to wonder how the United States can deem mercury as safe while Norway, Denmark and Sweden ban the substance in fillings.

“It’s a know neurotoxin; why not just admit it?” she asked in a telephone interview Thursday.

The FDA now classifies amalgam fillings as devices carrying a moderate risk. The agency warns against their use in patients with mercury poisoning.

But since the 2009 ruling, the FDA said public concerns have been raised about the adequacy of the agency’s method of assessing mercury risks, as well as concerns over the exposure of young children to mercury vapor, the accumulative effect of mercury on people with many fillings and the adequacy of studies cited in the decision.

In calling for an advisory-panel meeting on amalgam, the FDA also cited a new National Academy of Sciences study on risk assessments, which, among other things, calls for “greater understanding of the biological processes underlying the production of toxicity or other types of adverse health effects.”

/end article: reposted from http://www.theday.com/article/20100611/BIZ02/306119859/-1/BIZ

Filed Under: Mercury Poisoning Tagged With: , ,

DMSA and Autism Study

June 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment




Below is a summary of a study from the Journal of Toxicology

Adams, JB, M Baral, E Geis, J Mitchell, J Ingram, A Hensley, I Zappia, S Newmark, E Gehn, RA Rubin, K Mitchell, J Bradstreet, and JM El-Dahr. 2009. The severity of autism is associated with toxic metal body burden and red blood cell glutathioine levels. Journal of Toxicology doi:10.1155/2009/532640.

Synopsis by Michele A. La Merrill, Ph.D.

 

Children with higher levels of metals – such as lead and antimony – in their urine had more severe autism, suggesting that metal levels in their bodies may contribute to its seriousness.

The severity of a child’s autism coincided with the levels of toxic metals excreted in their urine after treatment with a metals removal therapy, finds a study published in the Journal of Toxicology. The higher the levels of lead, antimony and other metals excreted, the more severe was the child’s autism. The findings hold true across four independent tools used to assess autism severity.

The results suggest to researchers that these metals may contribute to the degree of autism symptoms in the children. Because these children had autism before the toxic metals were measured, the study does not address whether the metals cause autism or the sources of the metals.

Autism is a severe disorder that impacts social, communicative and behavioral function. It is increasingly diagnosed in young children and affects them for life. While widespread, its cause is not known.

Some researchers have noticed that autism symptoms are similar to symptoms associated with toxic metal poisoning. Because of this, mercury, lead and other metals have been scrutinized for possible links to autism. Yet, even though some human research evidence suggests a relationship between metals and autism, the exact relationship remains a mystery.

Sixty-three children aged 3 to 8 years old participated in the study. The children had no mercury dental fillings and were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Researchers assessed the severity of autism using tools developed to either diagnose the condition or monitor the symptoms.

Measurements of toxic metals were taken from children’s urine before and after children were treated with oral dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA). DMSA is a medication approved for infant lead poisoning, though doctors sometimes use it to treat toxic exposure to other metals, like mercury. None of the children in the study had ever been treated with DMSA.

Lead and antimony excreted after the DMSA treatment were consistently associated with autism across the four severity assessment tools used. Mercury, aluminum and tin were associated with some – but not all – of the severity assessment tools. DMSA treatment significantly decreased urinary lead levels, as expected. This therapy also effectively removed a number of other toxic metals from the children, including tin, bismuth, tungsten, thallium, antimony and arsenic.

In these kinds of studies, the level of one type of metal found in a child is related to the level of another type of metal found in the same child. So even though the levels of lead and antimony in this study correlated to autism severity across all four of the assessment tools used, the researchers cannot be sure which of the individual metals measured relate to autism severity in this study. Identifying autism severity in people with only lead or antimony exposure might help to solve this question.

This study raises more questions about the role of toxic metal exposures in the severity of autism spectrum disorder. A larger study that assesses autism severity both before- and after- DMSA treatment, while documenting the effectiveness of DMSA treatment, would lend further credibility to the notion that toxic metals influence autism severity.

This study suggests that DMSA is effective therapy to remove a variety of toxic metals from children. Regulatory agencies could evaluate the treatment and develop appropriate treatment guidelines for DMSA uses.

Filed Under: Autism Tagged With: , ,

Skin Cream Contains Mercury

June 17, 2010 By 1 Comment




Feds probing homemade skin cream link to mercury

By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM (AP) – May 28, 2010

RICHMOND, Va. — State and federal officials are investigating cases of possible mercury exposure linked to a homemade cream from Mexico that claims to lighten the skin, fade freckles and age spots, and treat acne.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was recently made aware of the issue and is conducting investigations in several states, said spokesman Ira Allen. He would not say which states are included in the investigation.

“We’re very interested in pursuing cases of products that harm people, particularly with mercury, which is especially harmful to children,” Allen said. “Any time we get intelligence on something like this, we act on it.”

Virginia health officials are investigating 10 cases in the central and northwestern parts of the state involving children and adults who had elevated levels of mercury after using the cream over the course of a few years.

Officials in Virginia found out about the cases while assisting California health officials in a case involving a family who had also used the cream, which was sold without ingredient labels at locations in Mexico, said Department of Health public health toxicologist Dwight Flammia. Tests show the cream has about 5 percent to 6 percent mercury.

Historically, mercury has been used in a number of medicinal products including skin-lightening creams, but has been banned from almost all regulated and over the-counter medications in the U.S. because it’s toxic.

“People using homemade-type skin lightening creams has been going on for decades,” said Rebecca LePrell, an environmental epidemiologist with the Virginia health agency. “Right here we’re just kind of capturing the tip of the iceberg.”

The federal agency had issued import alerts in the mid-1990s regarding the cosmetic products from Mexico and the Dominican Republic, which bars the import of the products and prompts authorities to seize products sent through U.S. ports of entry, Allen said.

“It’s impossible to find everything, but this stuff is dangerous,” Allen said, urging people to contact health officials if they have used or purchased such products.

Unregulated products may contain mercury that can be absorbed through the skin. Elevated levels of mercury in the body can affect the nervous system and kidneys. Symptoms of mercury poisoning include irritability, tremors, memory loss, personality change, gum inflammation and upset stomach. None of the Virginia cases showed any symptoms, Flammia said.

The investigation was first prompted by nutritional tests in California done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Flammia said. According to the California Department of Public Health, blood and urine tests showed elevated levels of mercury. Further investigation revealed a family had been using the homemade cream and had relatives in Virginia using the cream. Members of the California family did show symptoms of mercury poisoning, the health department said.

Filed Under: Mercury Poisoning Tagged With: , ,