Mercury Toxicity: Causing More Harm to your Health than you Think

You might have heard about mercury toxicity or mercury poison in relation to eating tuna fish, but brushed it off as not a big deal. As it turns out, mercury might be a bigger deal than you thought, especially when it comes to your health.
 

Mercury is Everywhere
Mercury is a natural occurring element that can be found in the earth, air and water. Mercury is literally everywhere. It comes in many forms, but the biggest concern is exposure to mercury as it is a toxin.

Exposure to mercury happens mainly through ingestion. Mercury in the air and land eventually makes its way into the water. Once there microorganisms change it into methylmercury, which is a more toxic form that then builds up in fish/shellfish and other animals that eat them. Eating certain types of fish and shellfish is the biggest source of exposure to humans.

Mercury is also found in foods including liver, poultry, swine and dairy cows. Mercury cell chlor-alkali products are used to make food ingredients including citric acid, socium benzoate, and high fructose corn syrup. Samples of high fructose corn syrup have been found to contain up to .57 mg of mercury per gram of high fructose corn syrup.

Another exposure route is through breathing in mercury vapor. This can happen when elemental mercury is released into the air. Products (like some types of thermometers) that contain elemental mercury release mercury into the air when they break. Mercury has also been used in dental fillings, which can release as much as 15 mg of mercury per day!