Patients ask, "How Can I Be Toxic?" Common Sources of Mercury Revealed

"Doctor, where could I be getting Mercury or other toxic heavy metals from?" When you report the results of heavy metal testing on hair, blood or urine patients may have difficulty imagining where they might be exposed to toxic heavy metals such as Mercury. We now find that up to 10% of daily calories for some people come from High Fructose Corn Syrup, which has recently been proven to contribute mercury to our intake. Eating fish is another major contributor of dietary mercury from the following FDA report.

The FDA analyzes some foods for mercury through the ongoing surveillance program known as the Total Diet Study (TDS). The TDS, however, does not test all foods for mercury. Mercury is routinely detected by the TDS in fish, liver, and poultry because farmers routinely use fishmeal and/or fish oil as feed for certain livestock to include chickens, swine, dairy cows, and farmed fish. Animals that are fed fishmeal can bioconcentrate monomethyl mercury in protein matrices...

Garry F. Gordon MD, DO, MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
www.gordonresearch.com

Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product sugar

Renee Dufault*1, Blaise LeBlanc2, Roseanne Schnoll3, Charles Cornett4, Laura Schweitzer4, David Wallinga5, Jane Hightower6, Lyn Patrick7 and Walter J Lukiw8

Published: 26 January 2009

Environmental Health 2009, 8:2 doi:10.1186/1476-069X-8-2 This article is available from: http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2

Abstract

Mercury cell chlor-alkali products are used to produce thousands of other products including food ingredients such as citric acid, sodium benzoate, and high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is used in food products to enhance shelf life. A pilot study was conducted to determine if high fructose corn syrup contains mercury, a toxic metal historically used as an anti-microbial. High fructose corn syrup samples were collected from three different manufacturers and analyzed for total mercury. The samples were found to contain levels of mercury ranging from below a detection limit of 0.005 to 0.570 micrograms mercury per gram of high fructose corn syrup. Average daily consumption of high fructose corn syrup is about 50 grams per person in the United States.

With respect to total mercury exposure, it may be necessary to account for this source of mercury in the diet of children and sensitive populations.