Mercury Poison

Mercury, the only common metal that is liquid at room temperature, was once believed to be the source of gold by alchemists is used differently today. It became a common ingredient of paints, diuretics, pesticides, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, skin creams, antifungal agents, vaccines, and thermometers. It is also a by-product of many industrial processes. About 50 tons it pumped into the air each year by US power plants and that mercury then drains into the oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams where it is absorbed into the flesh of sea creatures.

The rise in mercury levels is effecting babies. Mothers contain mined with mercury have lead to disabilities such as deafness, blindness, mental retardation, and cerebral palsy. Mercury poisoning can cause numbness, stumbling, dementia, and death in adults. In smaller amounts of exposure, studies have shown that children have slower reflexes, language deficits, and shortened attention spans. In adults, there have been links to heart disease while other groups claim of connections to Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and to the escalating rate of autism. Studies have shown that high levels of mercury in the mother's hair during pregnancy have lead to a drop in IQ points. Evidence suggest that methylmercury might cause heart disease and can cause a increase in heart disease. Mercury can also harm the immune and reproductive system. However, the damage that mercury inflicts is till unclear but the degree of its toxicity depends on the form and route of exposure.

Last year the United nation reported that toxins can travel thousands of miles into the atmosphere to contaminate areas. Mercury is given off into the air when volcanoes erupt or when mountains erode. But human activities have lead to the increase of mercury content in the atmosphere by 1.5 percent each year.