amalgams: World's longest-running study of the health effects of low levels of mercury exposure

[Guest guest]

Can't help but wonder if Dr. 's findings have been predetermine?

Whether his project will include variations in susceptibility OR whether

those variations will be buried amidst the overall data?

Perhaps he's an honest researcher.

- - - -

World's longest-running study of the health effects of low levels of

mercury exposure

Medical Studies/Trials

Published: Friday, 14-Sep-2007

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29862

The presence of mercury in dental amalgams, or fillings, is relatively

common knowledge; however, whether its presence affects the neurological

system is a debate that has been ongoing for 150 years.

A new study beginning in less than a week will - for the first time -

study whether prenatal exposure to mercury vapor from fillings affects

neurological development.

As part of the world's longest-running study of the health effects of low

levels of mercury exposure, Gene , D.D.S, Ph.D., an associate

professor in the Eastman Department of Dentistry at the University of

Rochester Medical Center, will begin an almost $3 million, National

Institutes of Health-funded study on prenatal exposure to mercury from

dental amalgams or fillings. will collect hair samples from

children in the Indian Ocean island nation the Seychelles , who were

enrolled in a study in 2001 to determine their exposure to methyl mercury

from fish and other seafood. He will also record how many fillings the

children have and how many and which surfaces of the teeth they cover as

an indication of exposure to mercury vapor.

Because these children were enrolled prior to their birth, more

information is available than any previous mercury/dental filling study.

" This study can go back prenatally because we know what the mother's

dental history was prior to and during the pregnancy, " said , who is

also an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine

and the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology. " Little is known about

detrimental effects of early exposure, and we need to examine this because

studies suggest the developing brain is more susceptible to mercury than

the adult brain. "

Earlier studies on postnatal mercury vapor from dental fillings showed no

significant effect on children's neurological function. While

comprehensive, those studies did not examine whether children may have

been exposed through their mother's dental work while still in the womb.

" Comprehensive studies like these are impossible without

cross-departmental collaboration. Dr. 's work will add another

important layer to understanding the impact of prenatal exposure to

mercurythat he and the Eastman Dental Center are uniquely able to

provide, " said Cyril Meyerowitz, B.D.S, M.S., chair of the Eastman

Department of Dentistry.

This study expands on knowledge gathered in the Seychelles on the

neurological effects of methyl mercury by a group of researchers at the

University of Rochester Medical Center, including Philip W. son,

Ph.D., a senior investigator and professor of Pediatrics. The team has not

found any ill effects of low level mercury exposure. son said this

new study is integral to further understanding the potential impact of all

environmental exposures of methyl mercury.

" It's the only study ever conceived where we'll be able to look at

exposure in the main ways people are exposed to mercury - fish and

seafood, and dental amalgams " son said. " No one has ever done this

before. "

Mercury has been known to have detrimental effects on the nervous system

for centuries; however, it wasn't until an environmental disaster in

Minamata - Japan - that the world began to take notice of prenatal methyl

mercury poisoning. In the mid-1950s, heavy mercury pollution in Minamata

Bay contaminated seafood the community ate as a major source of food.

Thousands of people were poisoned to varying degrees, and many children

born of mothers who were exposed to methyl mercury were also affected -

even if their mothers didn't show any obvious signs of poisoning

themselves. The children's symptoms ranged from speech delay to mental

retardation.

During a series of poor harvests in Iraq in the late 1960s and early

1970s, the Iraqi government bought cheap seed treated with a mercury-based

fungicide to give to their people for farming. However, much of the seed

arrived too late to be planted, so against orders not to eat it, the seed

was ground and eaten. Thousands of people became ill. Much of the grain

was dumped in ditches and beside rivers after it was pinpointed as the

cause of the poisoning. From there, it entered the food chain again

through poisoned fish and birds. As many as 20,000 people were poisoned

and half of those died. The team at the University of Rochester Medical

Center, including Myers, M.D., a pediatric neurologist and a senior

member of the team of researchers studying Seychelles , began its studies

of mercury with this tragedy.

The two incidents together showed that levels of exposure that had little

or no effect on a mother can seriously damage her fetus's developing brain

and they inspired the University of Rochester team to find the ideal

population to study prenatal exposure to mercury. The team chose

Seychelles for two main reasons - the fish consumed there have an average

level of mercury and mothers eat 12 meals of fish each week (much higher

than the average American). Since 1989, 779 children have been followed

and no adverse effects on developmental outcomes were attributed to

prenatal exposure to mercury in seafood. Studies on these and other

children in Seychelles are ongoing.

http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/

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