Synergistic Effects of Mercury with Other Toxic Metals: Extreme Synergistic Toxicity
Mercury and lead are extremely neurotoxic and cytotoxic, but their combined synergistic effect is much worse(1,4). A dose of mercury sufficient to kill 1% of tested rats, when combined with a dose of lead sufficient to kill less than 1% of rats, resulted in killing 100 % of rats tested(1a,4). Thus with combined exposure the safe dose is 1/100 as much as the dose individually. Studies in Australia have confirmed similar relationships hold for people(6). This means most people in the U.S. are getting dangerous levels of these metals, enough to cause some neurologic effects.
Similar is true for synergistic effect with other toxic metals like cadmium and arsenic(1), and with other toxic chemicals like PCBs(2a) and pesticides and tobacco smoke(2b). The level of mercury thimerosal in vaccines has been shown to be highly neurotoxic, but the effect was found to be much larger due to the synergistic effect with aluminum, which is also in most vaccines(4). Studies using U.S. CDC data have found thimerosal from vaccines to be major factors in autism and ADHD(5), along with prenatal rhogam shots which contain high levels of mercury thimerosal and are given to some RH negative women during pregnancy.
Dental amalgam has been documented by hundreds of thousands of medical lab tests to be the largest source of mercury in most adults or children who have several amalgam fillings(7,8). Mother’s dental amalgams have been documented to be the largest source or mercury in the fetus, with levels in the fetus higher than in the mother’s blood(8), and similar for mercury levels in young infants. Medical lab tests commonly find significant levels of other toxic metals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, antimony, etc. in both adult and children’s hair or urine tests(12), and commonly find related adverse health effects such as ADHD and learning disabilities.
Autism increased in the U.S. more than 10 fold in the 1990s. According to the Florida Dept. of Education, the numbers increased from approx. 300 to over 4000 during this time period. There have likewise been large increases in the number of children with ADHD and other developmental conditions, according to the National Academy of Sciences and other sources(12) . A major factor in this appears to be the large increase in vaccinations given to infants, as noted in the previous post. (more documentation available at the childrens neurological page, www.flcv.com/indexk.html
There was an increase of over 45% in learning disabilities in Pennsylvania between 1990 and 2000(3). But the study showed that the county highest on the Chemical Pollution Scorecard, Montgomery, had an increase more than double that of the rest of the state. Montgomery County had an increase in ADHD of 32.7% and an increase in autism of 310%. An analysis of the U.S. Dept. of Education report on the prevalence of various childhood conditions among school children found that the rate of autism and speech disorders increased with increasing levels of thimerosal exposure from vaccines(5). A study of environmental mercury levels in Texas school districts found a 61 percent increase in autism and a 43 percent increase in special education cases for every 1,000 pounds of mercury released into the environment(9a). Autism prevalence diminished by 2 percent for every 10 miles of distance from a mercury source. Another similar study found similar results and estimated economic costs due to disability or lower IQ (9b). Fossil fuel-burning power plants were the largest source of the widespread mercury pollution(9) but dental amalgam was the largest source in sewers and a significant source of environmental mercury in water bodies, fish, and air emissions(10).
Dr Michael Godfrey and dentist Noel Campbell write:“…a lethal dose (LD1 [enough to kill 1% of the rats]) was combined with a 1/20th LD1 of lead, resulting in a LD 100 [100% death rate] in the test animals.”We have recently found that considerable amounts of lead may be excreted with the mercury following DMPS provocation. Our preliminary investigations appear to indicate that a synergistic effect could be identified by multiplying the lead and mercury concentrations together, after adjusting to IG of urine creatinine. We have termed this the Campbell-Godfrey factor (C-G factor). Chronic-ally affected patients may have high levels of either metal or a high total C-G factor. Those with the highest C-G factor appear to be the worst affected, thus indicating that the synergism in animals is replicated in man.”
- (a) Schubert J, Riley EJ, Tyler SA. Combined effects in toxicology. A rapid systematic testing procedure: cadmium, mercury, and lead. Toxicol Environ Health 1978;4(5/6):763-776;& (b) Tabata M, Kumar Sarker A, Nyarko E. Enhanced conformational changes in DNA in the presence of mercury(II), cadmium(II) and lead(II) porphyrins. J Inorg Biochem. 2003 Feb 1;94(1-2):50-8; & (c)Traore A, Bonini M, Dano SD, Creppy EE. Synergistic effects of some metals contaminating mussels on the cytotoxicity of the marine toxin okadaic acid. Arch Toxicol. 1999 Aug;73(6):289-95;& (d) Sanchez DJ, Belles M, Albina ML, Sirvent JJ, Domingo JL. Nephrotoxicity of simultaneous exposure to mercury and uranium in comparison to individual effects of these metals in rats. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2001 Winter;84(1-3):139-54.
- (a)Philippe Grandjean P, White RF et al. Neurobehavioral deficits associated with PCB in 7-year-old children prenatally exposed to seafood neurotoxicants. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 2001;223(4):305-317;& (b) Steevens JA, Benson WH. Toxicokinetic interactions and survival of Hyalella azteca exposed to binary mixtures of chlorpyrifos and methyl mercury. Aquat Toxicol. 2001 Feb;51(4):377-88;& (c) El-Safty IA, Shouman AE, Amin NE. Nephrotoxic effects of mercury exposure and smoking among egyptian workers in a fluorescent lamp factory. Arch Med Res. 2003 Jan-Feb;34(1):50-5; & (d) Hultberg B, Andersson A, Isaksson A. Interaction of metals and thiols in cell damage and glutathione distribution: potentiation of mercury toxicity by dithiothreitol. Toxicology. 2001 Jan 2;156(2-3):93-100.
- Pennsylvania Dept. of Education, 2003, Study of learning disability incidence in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1990 and 2000; & “”Polluting Our Future: Chemical Emissions in the U.S. that Affect Child Development and Learning,”” by Physicians For Social Responsibility, at (202) 898-0150, psrnatl@psr.org
- Haley, BE, Pendergrass JC ,Lovell, M., Univ. of Kentucky Chemistry Dept., paper presented to the Institute of Medicine Immunization Safety Review Committee, Spring 2001,& Affidavit Of Boyd E. Haley. Professor And Chair. Department Of Chemistry. University Of Kentucky: Thimerosal Containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopment Outcomes http://www.vran.org/vaccines/mercury/mer-haley.htm
- Geier M.R., Geier DA; Thimerosal in Childhood Vaccines, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and Heart Disease in the U.S. ; J of Amer Physicians and Surgeons, Vol 8(1), Spring 2003; & (b) Bradstreet J, Geier DA, et al, A case control study of mercury burden in children with Autisitic Spectrum Disorders, J of Amer Physicians and Surgeons, Vol 8(3), Summer 2003, & (c) A case series of children with apparent mercury toxic encephalopathies manifesting with clinical symptoms of regressive autistic disorders. Geier DA, Geier MR. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2007 May 15;70(10):837-51
- Godfrey and N. Campbell, Are Amalgam Fillings Safe for Lead-poisoned People? LEAD Action News vol 5 no 2 1997 ISSN 1324-6011 http://www.lead.org.au/lanv5n2/lanv5n2-4.html
- Documentation of High Levels of Mercury Exposure from Dental Amalgam Fillings, Review, B. Windham (Ed.), 2007, www.flcv.com/damspr1.html
- Effects of Mercury from Mother’s Dental Amalgam and other sources on the fetus and infants, B. Windham (Ed), 2007, flcv.com/fetaln.html
- Environmental mercury release, special education rates, and autism disorder: an ecological study of Texas, Health and Place, R.F. Palmer et al, March 2005http://www.generationrescue.org/pdf/seed.pdf & Mercury pollution from power plants, NWF, http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/pdfs/MercuryMythsFacts.pdf
& (b) Mental retardation and prenatal methylmercury toxicity., Trasande L, Schechter CB, Haynes KA, Landrigan PJ., Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, New York, New York. Am J Ind Med. 2006 Mar;49(3):153-8, http://www.melisa.org/abstracts.php#1
- Dental amalgam is the largest source of mercury in sewers and a significant source of mercury in water bodies, fish, and the environment, EPA &www.flcv.com/damspr2f.html