Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Mercurochrome

A recent study of a group of older Americans (and it is so nice of these pesky scientists to classify me as an older American ... mother fuckers) reports that of those who had elevated mercury levels, even higher than the U.S. government thinks is the limit of safety, did just as well as everyone else on neuropsychological tests. This is a surprising conclusion, since the current thought is that long-term, low-level mercury exposure is linked to an average five-point decrease in IQ among adults. All the older Americans, Baltimoreans to be exact, said that fish and crab cake consumption was their major source of mercury. None pointed to breaking open thermometers and rolling the little balls around on the floor with their fingers as a source of mercury exposure ... or playing with mercury in advanced chemistry class, seeing the many patterns that could be made by slinging a little ball of the liquid metal at the chalkboard while Miss Hofman wasn’t looking.

And none attributed their big loads of heavy metal to the liberal use of Mercurochrome on all kinds of cuts and abrasions in their younger days. There was a time when Mercurochrome or merthiolate was the antibacterial agent of choice of parents and grandparents everywhere. Kids would walk around with red swatches on their arms and legs, and you knew that their parents cared about them. Nobody made fun of them, for they wore badges of honor, having endured the stinging pain of the magic, salubrious elixir, the cheap cure-all of the masses.

The sale of Mercurochrome was banned in the United States in 1992. The ban was not supported by any study concluding the stuff caused mercury poisoning. There is one atom of mercury bound up in the molecule that is the active ingredient in Mercurochrome, and no study has shown that the mercury becomes unbound and poisons the system. The FDA panicked. The FDA would have better served the public by banning the sale of Mercury Mountaineers, which have caused many more health problems than Mercurochrome.

And, in its wisdom, the U.S. government allows power plants to send mercury vapor into the air for all to unwittingly and involuntarily inhale. I find it interesting that at a time when the EPA, by national conservation groups, and the U.S.A., by the international scientific community, are under attack regarding mercury emissions and other pollutants emanating from coal-burning power plants, a study, most likely funded by the U.S. government, arrives at the conclusion that relative mercury levels cause no impairment in human functioning. There’s nothing like muddying the already murky waters of environmental poisoning.

The U.S. position on mercury is inconsistent when it comes to consideration of public health. It is, however, consistent with the Bush administration’s catering to big business and its ignorance of the impact of its policies and philosophy on future generations.

Posted by Bill at April 22, 2005 03:50 PM