Mercury

Assessing older adults presenting with cognitive decline, depression or other neuropsychiatric symptoms can be challenging because the underlying causes can be multifactorial. This article describes neuropsychiatric manifestations similar to those of Parkinson’s disease in an elderly man who upon examination was suspected of having an elevated blood mercury level through dietary exposure, a suspicion later confirmed by blood tests. We outline suggestions for comprehensive history taking to identify potential sources of environmental exposure and provide resources to help limit and prevent consumption of foods that can contain heavy metals.

In this view, we think that mercury-containing dental amalgam fillings might have a confounding effect on the association between serum NSE and disability progression in multiple sclero-sis, which should be taken into account as important variable.

“Epidemiological evidence suggests a link between mercury (Hg) exposure from Thimerosal-containing vaccines and specific delays in development. A hypothesis-testing longitudinal cohort study (n=49,835) using medical records in the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between exposure to Hg from Thimerosal-containing hepatitis B vaccines (T-HBVs) administered at specific intervals in the first 6 months of life and specific delays in development [International Classification of Disease, 9th revision (ICD-9): 315.xx] among children born between 1991 and 1994 and continuously enrolled from birth for at least 5.81years. Infants receiving increased Hg doses from T-HBVs administered within the first month, the first 2months, and the first 6 months of life were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with specific delays in development than infants receiving no Hg doses from T-HBVs. During the decade in which T-HBVs were routinely recommended and administered to US infants (1991-2001), an estimated 0.5-1million additional US children were diagnosed with specific delays in development as a consequence of 25 μg or 37.5 μg organic Hg from T-HBVs administered within the first 6 months of life. The resulting lifetime costs to the United States may exceed $1 trillion.

BACKGROUND:
The benefit of patch testing patients with oral lichenoid lesions (OLL) is still debated.

OBJECTIVE:
We assessed the results of patch testing in patients with multiple amalgams and multiple OLL, where the etiology of the oral mucosal disease was unclear.

METHODS:
Patients referred from an oral medicine clinic were patch tested to the British Society of Cutaneous Allergy standard series, dental and materials series, and, in 1 patient, the dental methacrylate series also. Patients’ responses to amalgam removal were assessed during a mean follow-up of 2.6 (range, 0-4.75) years.

RESULTS:
Thirty-one patients with OLL were referred for patch testing. Ten (32%) patients tested positively to mercury. Eight patients with positive reactions to mercury had amalgam removal, with complete or partial resolution of the OLL in all cases (100%).

CONCLUSIONS:
Patients with OLL of unclear etiology adjacent to large amalgam restorations should be investigated for delayed contact hypersensitivity. Removal of amalgams in patients with positive patch test reactions to mercury results in improvement or resolution of the OLL in most patients.

“Most aspects of the mercury life cycle are addressed in the Community Strategy Concerning Mercury which key aim is to reduce mercury levels both in relation to human exposure and the environment. Pursuant to Action 6 of the Strategy, the use of dental amalgam should be evaluated with a view to considering whether additional regulatory measures are appropriate.”

“The culmination of the research that examines the effects of Thimerosal in humans indicates that it is a poison at minute levels with a plethora of deleterious consequences, even at the levels currently administered in vaccines.”

Over the past decades, the use of common sources of electromagnetic fields such as Wi-Fi routers and mobile phones has been increased enormously all over the world. There is ongoing concern that exposure to electromagnetic fields can lead to adverse health effects. It has recently been shown that even low doses of mercury are capable of causing toxicity. Therefore, efforts are initiated to phase down or eliminate the use of mercury amalgam in dental restorations. Increased release of mercury from dental amalgam restorations after exposure to electromagnetic fields such as those generated by MRI and mobile phones has been reported by our team and other researchers. We have recently shown that some of the papers which reported no increased release of mercury after MRI, may have some methodological errors. Although it was previously believed that the amount of mercury released from dental amalgam cannot be hazardous, new findings indicate that mercury, even at low doses, may cause toxicity. Based on recent epidemiological findings, it can be claimed that the safety of mercury released from dental amalgam fillings is questionable. Therefore, as some individuals tend to be hypersensitive to the toxic effects of mercury, regulatory authorities should re-assess the safety of exposure to electromagnetic fields in individuals with amalgam restorations. On the other hand, we have reported that increased mercury release after exposure to electromagnetic fields may be risky for the pregnant women. It is worth mentioning that as a strong positive correlation between maternal and cord blood mercury levels has been found in some studies, our findings regarding the effect of exposure to electromagnetic fields on the release of mercury from dental amalgam fillings lead us to this conclusion that pregnant women with dental amalgam fillings should limit their exposure to electromagnetic fields to prevent toxic effects of mercury in their fetuses. Based on these findings, as infants and children are more vulnerable to mercury exposures, and as some individuals are routinely exposed to different sources of electromagnetic fields, we possibly need a paradigm shift in evaluating the health effects of amalgam fillings.

“After another of its customary multi-year stalls on politically fraught issues, FDA in January substantially denied three five-year-old petitions seeking to rid American dentistry of mercury-based dental amalgams that have been scientifically linked to kidney damage and neurological disabilities and diseases like multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s.”

“Thirty experienced dentist with work experience is examined randomly, and a questionnaire containing questions about personal details such as age and experience, compliance or non-compliance personal hygiene, type of amalgam-consumption, conditioning and characteristics of work place of dentists was completed by them. From this people were collected the 60 urine samples during two phases and once a month. After sample preparation and digestion, by cold vapor atomic absorption system, mercury concentration in the samples was measured in terms of µg/L. To analyze the obtained data used SPSS and normalized tests, t two samples, t one sample, multivariate regression and one-way variance.”