EPA/FDA saying women/children should not eat many types of FISH !!!

Posted on Fri, Mar. 18, 2005

Power plants and mercury

Rule change puts babies in the womb at risk

MICHELLE BIRCH SINN AND JEROME A. PAULSON


There is growing concern that babies in the womb are very susceptible to harm from exposure to mercury. Children who are born to women with high mercury levels face an increased risk of cognitive and developmental damage.

In the United States, coal-burning power plants are the largest man-made source of mercury to our air. Mercury enters the food chain when it falls back to earth with rain and is converted to toxic methyl mercury by natural processes in our waterways. There fish ingest the toxic methyl mercury and it makes its way onto the dinner table. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration now recommend women of childbearing age, pregnant women, breastfeeding women and children under 15 not consume many types of fish due to their high mercury content. Such limits greatly undermine efforts to fight obesity and cardiovascular disease.

In 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention performed a study that looked at blood samples from more than 2,000 women aged 16 to 49. It found that 8 percent of the women had mercury blood levels exceeding the level the EPA deemed safe for unborn children. More recent research concluded that unborn children have much higher levels of mercury in their blood than their mothers do.

New evidence shows air pollution can also cause genetic damage to unborn children. A groundbreaking study found babies in the womb can potentially be harmed by exposure to air pollution from power plants, motor vehicles and other sources. Babies whose mothers were exposed to higher levels of air pollution were found susceptible to the kind of genetic damage other studies have linked to cancer.<more>

March 16, 2005

NEW EPA MERCURY RULE CALLED ILLEGAL

With the long-awaited release yesterday of its new rules for
reducing mercury pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency
set off a firestorm of protest and controversy that is certain
to wind up in the courts.

As expected, EPA announced new rules that would reduce mercury
emissions from coal-fired power plants 20 percent by 2010, with
a goal of 70 percent reduction by 2018. Environmental health and
other groups assert that greater reductions could be achieved
much more rapidly, and that EPA's decision will endanger the
health of hundreds of thousands of newborn babies.

Mercury is known to harm the brain and nervous system,
especially in infants. It can cause learning disabilities,
attention deficit disorder and mental retardation. One in six
U.S. women of child-bearing age is reported to have enough
mercury in her blood to put a developing fetus at risk. <1> The
primary means of exposure is through consumption of certain
species of deep ocean fish, such as tuna and pollock.

The Bush Administration is proposing a "cap and trade" system,
whereby a national limit on mercury emissions would be set, but
in which individual power plants could trade emissions credits.
This would mean some states would achieve reductions in mercury
pollution while others would actually experience an increase.

John Walke, director of the air pollution program at the Natural
Resources Defense Council, said this would result in enormous
increases in mercury emissions in certain states. For example,
an increase of 841% in California; 176% in Colorado; 241% in New
Hampshire; and 56% in New Jersey. <2>

Martha Keating, a former mercury expert at EPA who is now a
senior scientist at the Clean Air Task Force, joined others in
saying that proper enforcement of the current Clean Air Act
would be far more effective than the new mercury rule. "If the
Clean Air Act was implemented as it should be, we would get
significant reductions of mercury, upwards of 90 percent," she
said on National Public Radio. "So in our mind is
a rollback." <3>

"It is unconscionable EPA is allowing power companies to trade
in a powerful neurotoxin--it is unprecedented and illegal," said
William S. Becker, executive director of the bipartisan State
and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators. <4> Becker
also heads the Association of Local Air Pollution Control
Officials.

Recent criticism both by the EPA's own inspector general and by
the non-partisan Government Accountability Office alleged that
EPA ignored scientific evidence in developing its mercury rule,
and called for further analyses. A Washington Post article said
Agency staff charged that Bush Administration political
operatives set the framework of the rule in advance, to support
industry's claim that installing the newest air pollution
control technology would be too expensive. <5>

Because mercury pollution of the oceans is a global problem, the
UN Environmental Programme held an international meeting in
Nairobi last month in an attempt to set in motion a plan to
reduce the trade, mining and emission of mercury. The European
Union has already decided to phase out mercury-cell chlorine
production and close the largest mercury mine in Europe (located
in Spain).

But U.S. officials blocked any concrete actions, instead calling
for self-regulation, more studies, more discussion. Noting that
the EPA has defended its new rule by saying mercury pollution is
a global problem and therefore tighter controls on U.S.
coal-fired power plants wouldn't solve it, Michael Bender of the
Ban Mercury Working Group--a coalition of 27 public interest
groups from several nations--said "The Administration is talking
out of both sides of its mouth. Today they are saying the only
way to solve the U.S. mercury problem is through international
action. Yet three weeks ago they hijacked the process and
blocked development of a global strategy."

Glutathione protects against mercury toxicity.

Glutathione (USH)
Glutathione is an important antioxidant amino acid which protects against mercury toxicity. Glutathione is a tripeptide, made from the combination of three amino acids; L-glycine, L-glutaniic acid, and L-cysteine. Studies have shown that GSH levels are decreased during cases of mercury toxicity. It is interesting to note that GSH deficiency resulting from genetic errors mimic the acute mercury toxicity effects of Minamata disease. Without adequate OSH, mercury from the environment cannot be detoxified and eliminated.
http://www.nzhealth.net.nz/poisons/mercury2.shtml

DMSA has three distinct disadvantages relative to DMPS.

First, DMPS appears to remain in the body for a longer time than DMSA.83

Secondly, DMPS acts more quickly than DMSA, probably because its distribution is both intracellular and extracellular.84

Thirdly, preparations of DMPS are available for intravenous or intramuscular use, while DMSA is available only in oral form.85 Since succinic acid is used in the citric acid cycle inside the cell, DMSA has been suspected for displacing mercury towards the inside of the cell86 after binding mercury somewhere on its way from the intestine to the succinic acid deficient cell.

We propose therefore that DMSA be used late in the mercury elimination process, after the connective tissue mercury load has been reduced with DMPS. The standard dose of DMSA is 5-10 mg/kg twice a day for two weeks. The DMSA is then stopped for two weeks and then the cycle is repeated.

Chlorella

Algae and other aquatic plants possess the capacity to take up toxic trace metals from their environment, resulting in an internal concentration greater than those of the surrounding waters.87 This property has been exploited as a means for treating industrial effluent containing metals before they are discharged, and to recover the bioavailable fraction of the metal.88

Chlorella has been shown to develop resistance to cadmium contaminated waters by synthesizing metal-binding proteins.89 A book written for the mining industry, Biosorption of Heavy Metals,90 details how miners use these organisms to increase the yield of precious metals in old mines. The mucopolysaccharides in chlorella's cell wall absorb rather large amounts of toxic metals similar to an ion exchange resin.

Chlorella also enhances mobilization of mercury compartmentalized in non-neurologic structures such as the gut wall,91 muscles, ligaments, connective tissue, and bone.

High doses of chlorella have been found to be very effective in Germany for mercury elimination.92

Chlorella is an important part of the systemic mercury elimination program, as approximately 90% of the mercury is eliminated through the stool. Using large doses of chlorella facilitates fecal mercury excretion. After the intestinal mercury burden is lowered, mercury will more readily migrate into the intestine from other body tissues from where chlorella will effectively remove it.

Chlorella is not tolerated by about one-third of people due to gastrointestinal distress. Chitosan can be effectively used as an alternative in these individuals. Chitosan makes up most of the hull of insects shellfish and also bind metals like mercury from the lumen of the intestines.93 94 95

Cilantro

Omura determined that cilantro could mobilize mercury and other toxic metals rapidly from the CNS.96 97

Cilantro mobilizes mercury, aluminum, lead and tin stored in the brain and in the spinal cord and moves it into the connective tissues. The mobilized mercury appears to be either excreted via the stool, the urine, or translocated into more peripheral tissues.

The mechanism of action is unknown. Cilantro alone often does not remove mercury from the body; it often only displaces the metals form intracellularly or from deeper body stores to more superficial structures, from where it can be easier removed with the previously described agents. The use of cilantro with DMSA or DMPS has produced an increase in motor nerve function.98

Potentiating Agents

Adequate sulfur stores are necessary to facilitate mercury's binding to sulfhydryl groups.

Many individual's sulfur stores are greatly depleted which impairs sulfur containing chelating or complexing agents, such as DMPS or DMSA, effectiveness as they are metabolized and utilized as a source of sulfur. Sulfur containing natural substances, like garlic99 100 and MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) may also serve as an effective agent to supply organic sulfur for detoxification.101 Fresh garlic is preferred as it has many other recently documented benefits.102 103 104 The garlic is consumed just below the threshold of social unacceptability, which is typically 1-2 cloves per day.

Antioxidants

Vitamin E doses of 400 I.U per day have been shown to have a protective effect when the brain is exposed to methyl-mercury.68 105 Selenium, 200-400 mcg daily,106 107 108 109 is a particularly important trace mineral in mercury elimination and should be used for most patients.

Selenium facilitates the function of glutathione, which is also important in mercury detoxification.110 111 112 Some clinicians find repetitive high dose intravenous glutathione useful, especially in neurologically compromised patients.

There is a suggestion in a rat model that lipoic acid may also be useful,113 but some clinicians are concerned about the potential of lipoic acid to bring mercury into the brain early in the stages of chelation, similar to DMSA and N-acetylcysteine (NAC), which has also been used in mercury chelation.114 Doses larger than 50-100 mg per day should be used with caution.

Vitamin C is also a helpful supplement for mercury elimination as it will tend to mobilize mercury from intracellular stores