Dear
I’ve cobbled together references from several
websites, my apologies for the length of this post – but it’s not a
subject that can be covered in a couple paragraphs.
Michigan is a hot spot for mercury deposition, methylmercury
hurts fetuses, babies, little kids, teens, adults and old people -- please see EPA
website URLs below for details on how each of us is at risk from mercury. Please
- call on Governor Granholm to reduce power plant mercury pollution, and cement
kiln mercury pollution, by 90% by 2013. Three other Great Lakes states are
doing it, THE
-Rita
From PIRGIM’s website:
http://pirgim.org/MI.asp?id2=13226&id3=MI
“On
February 22nd,
In all,
three Great Lakes states have now called for 90% mercury reductions, while THE
Great Lakes state -
And here is a snippet from the Sierra Club’s
Fact Sheet on Mercury:
http://www.sierraclub.org/mercury/factsheets/feeding_mercury.pdf
“In March 2004, the FDA and EPA issued a joint warning
to pregnant women, women who may become pregnant, and nursing mothers against
eating certain types of mercury-laden fish.7 More
importantly, in the United States, 45 states and territories have fish
consumption warnings because of unsafe levels of mercury in at least some of
their waters.8
“Hot spots” occur in locations where mercury deposition
is high. The top “hot spot” states are:
See the rest by clicking on the URL above.
And this from EPA: see http://www.epa.gov/mercury/effects.htm
Methylmercury effects
“For
fetuses, infants, and children, the primary health effect of methylmercury is
impaired neurological development. Methylmercury exposure in the womb, which
can result from a mother's consumption of fish and shellfish that contain
methylmercury, can adversely affect a baby's growing brain and nervous system.
Impacts on cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and
visual spatial skills have been seen in children exposed to methylmercury in
the womb. Recent human biological monitoring by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in 1999 and 2000 
(PDF 3 pp., 42 KB) shows that
most people have blood mercury levels below a level associated with possible
health effects. More
recent data from
the CDC support this general finding.
Outbreaks
of methylmercury poisonings have made it clear that adults, children, and
developing fetuses are at risk from ingestion exposure to methylmercury. During
these poisoning outbreaks some mothers with no symptoms of nervous system
damage gave birth to infants with severe disabilities, it became clear that the
developing nervous system of the fetus may be more vulnerable to methylmercury than
is the adult nervous system.
For more
information on fish consumption advisories across the country, visit EPA's fish consumption web
pages.
In
addition to the subtle impairments noted above, symptoms of methylmercury
poisoning may include; impairment of the peripheral vision; disturbances in
sensations ("pins and needles" feelings, usually in the hands, feet,
and around the mouth); lack of coordination of movements; impairment of speech,
hearing, walking; and muscle weakness. People concerned about their exposure to
methylmercury should consult their physician.
Additional Information:
Additional
information on the health effects of methylmercury is available from the IRIS
database at http://www.epa.gov/iris/subst/0073.htm
and EPA’s Methylmercury Water Quality Criterion Web site at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/methylmercury/index.html.
You can also visit the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
toxicological profile
for mercury.
And
from the IRIS Database clickable above and below:
Methylmercury (MeHg) (CASRN 22967-92-6)
http://www.epa.gov/iris/subst/0073.htm
Cardiovascular effects
There are
two recently published studies show an association between low-level
methylmercury exposure and cardiovascular effects. Sørensen et al. (1999)
reported that in a study of 1,000 7-year-old Faroese children, diastolic and
systolic blood pressures increased by 13.9 and 14.6 mm Hg, respectively, as the
cord-blood mercury increased from 1 to 10 µg/L. They also reported a 47%
decrease in heart rate variability (an indication of cardiac autonomic control)
for the same increase in cord-blood mercury. Salonen et al. (1995) reported
effects in adults from a study of 1,833 Finnish men. Over the 7-year
observation period, men with hair mercury in the highest tertile (2 ppm or
higher) had a 2.0 times greater risk of acute myocardial infarction than the
rest of the study population.
Persistent and delayed neurotoxicity
Another area
of concern is the onset or exacerbation of neurological deficits in aging
populations previously exposed to methylmercury. In a follow-up study of the
Minamata population, Kinjo et al. (1993) reported a high prevalence of sensory
disturbance in people with Minamata disease (MD). Also evaluated were
"acts of daily living" (ADL) that included the abilities to
independently eat, bathe, wash, dress, and use the toilet. The prevalence of
deficits was relatively greater in persons with MD compared with controls as a
function of increasing age. In other words, exposure to methylmercury three
decades earlier accelerated the aging process in aged individuals relative to
younger ones. Fukuda et al. (1999) evaluated adults who lived in a
methylmercury-polluted area near
Animal
studies lend support to the conclusion that methylmercury can have delayed
effects that are uncovered with age. Spyker (1975) identified neurological and
immune impairment in mice exposed prenatally to methylmercury as they
approached 1 year of age. Rats exposed to methylmercury in utero through 16
days of age exhibited a decline in performance in a task that required a
substantial motor output at an earlier age than did control rats (Newland and
Rasmussen, 2000). Rice and colleagues (Rice, 1998, 1989; Rice and Hayward,
1999) identified accelerated aging of sensory system function in a series of
studies in monkeys exposed during development to methylmercury. All of these
observations are consistent with a hypothesis that either developmental or
adult exposure to methylmercury can have adverse long-term sequelae that may
not be detected for years or decades following cessation of exposure. However,
these effects cannot be quantified based on available data.”
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Rita Jack
Water Sentinels Project
Sierra Club Mackinac Chapter
tel: 517-484-2372
www.michigan.sierraclub.org
www.sierraclub.org/watersentinels
Make all