EnviHeal

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Exposure to mercury is widespread in our environment, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data shows that most people have blood mercury levels below levels associated with possible health effects (EPA.gov 2017). Mercury is a neurotoxin that can affect a person’s health however that depends on several factors. These factors include the age of the person exposed, how the exposure occurs, length of exposure, co-morbidities of the person exposed, the amount of exposure and the form of mercury exposed. There are various forms of mercury and they differ in the effects that it has on the human body as well as the degree of toxicity. The elemental form of mercury naturally occurs in the earth’s crust, occupational exposure to mercury occurs during industrial processes and this happens in its inorganic form. Methylmercury also known as organic mercury is the most common form of mercury exposure in the United States because the fish and shellfish that is consumed contains higher levels of methylmercury. Ethyl mercury is used as a vaccine preservative and it is also said to not pose any health risks however some may argue that the high levels of ethyl mercury found in vaccines may be linked to the 237 percent increase in Autism cases from 1987-1998 in California(Watanabe,C., & Satoh, H. 1996). The World Health Organization (WHO) considers mercury to be one of the top ten chemicals or group of chemicals that pose a major public health concern.

The first article that I selected to further explore the environmental effects of mercury looked at the evolution of our understanding of methylmercury as a health threat. This article examined earlier literature on Minamata Disease that occurred along the Minamata Bay in Kyush, Japan in the 1956 as a result of contaminated methylmercury discharged in waste water from a chemical plant. It also looked at in utero exposure to methylmercury and the effects it may have on the nervous systems of developing fetuses and lastly the article compared human and animal data and the effects methylmercury have on their nervous systems in utero.

The second article that I selected examined all of the literature from 2012-present that addressed mercury and methylmercury as it relates to human health. The results of the literature search resulted in 514 relevant published papers that looked at ten different areas of mercury exposure which is considered to be a more current and comprehensive literature review that looks at multiple factors of mercury exposure. The key points drawn from the first article are the long-term effects of the outbreak of Minamata disease in the Moms and their unborn children, the effects of a pregnant woman eating fish more than three times a week as it relates to the higher instance of abnormal results from the Denver Developmental Screening Test on their babies. Discussed in section five of the second article addressed the fact that based on the results of their literature review, healthcare professionals and researchers need to work more closely together to help fill the gaps in knowledge as it relates to mercury exposure.

References :

Health Effects of exposure to Mercury, Environmental Protection Agency, 2017 retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/mercury/health-effects-exposures-mercury

Ha, E., Basu, N., Bose-O’Reilly, S., Dórea, J. G., McSorley, E., Sakamoto, M., & Chan, H. M. (2017). Current progress on understanding the impact of mercury on human health. Environmental Research, 152419-433. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2016.06.042

Watanabe,C., & Satoh, H. (1996). Evolution of our understanding of methylmercury as a health threat. Environmental Health Perspective, 104 Suppl 367-379