The first emperor of China (left) took mercury pills to insure for eternal life. He lived to a ripe old age of 49, which is not a joke, because that was in the BCs, and average life expectancy was below 30 until only around a century or so ago.
From where did "mad as a hatter" come? Well, there was Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. But the origin was a disease workers in the felt hat industry suffered from, which resulted in slurred speech, loosening of teeth, loss of hair, signs of dementia and depression. The problem was that a mercury solution was used to stiffen those hats. Mercury is a deadly neurotoxin. Organic mercury is worse than natural mercury.
I remember as a child coating coins with mercury to give them a shiny sheen. We got the mercury from thermometers. Turns out that mercury is not absorbed through the skin nor by digestion (you can accidentally swallow it, as, say, if that thermometer cracks while you were taking your temperature under your tongue--anyway, get those digital instruments today). Just don't vaporize it and breath. Yet, the boiling point of mercury is a very high 671 F. BUT THE BOILING POINT OF DIMETHYL MERCURY IS 200 F, LOWER THAN WATER! This is one reason why organic mercury compounds are especially to be avoided.
Dr. Oz says the metal fillings in your mouth are TOXIC! Just went to my dentist today and looks like I need to cap the silver filling in one of my teeth. People don't realize that this silver is not pure silver, but an amalgam, up to 50% or so of mercury. As another aside, did you know something called thimerosal, which is about 59% mercury, is in some vaccines? Even in some flu shots!!! Mercury in very small amounts can damage your brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, immune system...I can go on and on. Now I have a second reason to crown my tooth, but I did not check if my recent flu injection had thimerosal. But there is so much controversy about the true dangers of mercury in your mouth and in vaccines. This remains a debatable subject.
Well, there is not much you can now do about the mercury already in your body. Actually, there are processes for leaching and otherwise removing mercury. In any case, how much worse (or better??) can it be to eat sashimi (raw fish, like tuna)? According to a recent study from the Universities of Hawaii and Michigan:
- The mercury in fish mostly comes from natural causes, such as forest fires and man-made activities, such as coal fired power plants, which is expected to increase with time.
- Plankton takes in mercury, mostly from the atmosphere falling into the ocean, small sealife eat plankton, and larger fish feed up the chain to concentrate this metal. The higher the trophic level, the more the mercury percentage in the flesh.
- Thus, pregnant women and nursing mothers should refrain from marlin, shark, swordfish, etc. New mothers in Hawaii are three times more likely to have elevated levels of mercury than the national norm.
- Pregnant women and young children should eat fish like ahi (tuna) and opah no more than once every two weeks, and canned tuna, mahimahi and cod no more than once a week.
Therefore, best as I can determine, I'm not pregnant, nor young, so I can without much worry about becoming a mad hatter, eat virtually unlimited quantities of fish, as long as I avoid akule. I recently went to Queen's Emergency for a bone in my throat. So if you begin to have slurred speech, loosening of teeth, loss of hair, signs of dementia and depression, maybe the fish you are consuming has too much mercury. On the other hand, you could just be getting old.
I just had to have some hamachi sashimi last night (right), which is yellowtail, with minimal mercury. Here are some levels of contamination in parts per million:
- tilefish (right) from the Gulf of Mexico (1.40)
- swordfish (0.995)
- shark (0.979)
- bigeye tuna (0.689)
- marlin (0.485)
- yellowfin tuna or ahi or maguro (0.354)
- snapper (0.166)
- lobster (0.093)
- crab (0.065)
- catfish (0.025)
- salmon (0.008-0.022)
- shrimp (0.001)
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