Blood or Urine

[jgmotamedi]

For mercury exposure testing, of course. Which are more appropriate for our type of exposure to mercury? I went to the doctor today to order up my test, and he didn’t have a clue.

[Andy Stockton]

I did some reading on the issue a while back and had trouble finding much discussion of specifics.

This source: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/cabs/mercury/

Included this:

Tests are available to determine mercury exposure. The particular test depends on type of mercury to which a person believes he or she has been exposed.

Test: Urine mercury

Procedure:

Urine specimen is taken to a laboratory for analysis. This test is good for detecting exposure only to elemental or inorganic mercury, not methylmercury.

Test: Hair mercury

Procedure:

Hair is only considered a reliable marker of exposure to methylmercury or ethylmercury.

Test:Blood mercury

Procedure:

Blood is an excellent indicator of exposure to methylmecury only.

Acute elemental exposures can be detected for a few days in blood. Otherwise, after 2 days, urine is a better indicator of past or cumulative elemental mercury exposure.

It would seem that for our purposes, urine testing is best unless you have a recent high level exposure concern.

This source had some information as well.

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthguidelines/mercuryvapor/recognition.html

[jgmotamedi]

Thanks Andy!

The description the doctor found just noted that blood was good for “organic” mercury, which I took to mean methyl-mercury, but he wasn’t sure. Anyhow, I took the 3L pee-jug home with me, figuring someone here would know, and indeed they did.

[Mercury]

Hey Jason,

Andy gave you good advice. Please see my article entitled “Mercury and the Daguerreotypist” from the 1994 Daguerreian Annual in the Resources category on this web site. Interestingly, I’m not surprised that your doc didn’t know alot about the tests available or which is best. My doctor recently asked to read the article since I’d asked about getting a mercury screen done and told him what I’m doing, and he found it very informative.

Hair test is worthless. It’s like digging for fossils. Blood test can be compromised if the blood also contains any iodine, which of course we’re working with also.(I’m still trying to run this one down from a test I had done quite a while ago.) “Organic” mercury is any mercury compound involving carbon, of which methyl mercury (CH3Hg+)is the most prevalent. Careful daguerreotypists will get more mercury from eating long-lived, top-of-food-chain fish like Swordfish or Tuna, in the form of methyl mercury, than they will the metallic, or elemental mercury,if they’re careful.

Even at low levels of elemental mercury exposure, which still can be damaging to primarily the kidneys in the course of the body disposing of it, a certain amount of the elemental mercury is converted by human body processes to the methyl mercury cation, which passes through the blood-brain barrier and is cumulative… very difficult to flush out. That’s why making sure you’re working safely with Hg and getting tested periodically is, in my opinion, worthwhile.

Get BOTH blood and urine screens done… since they give a look at different exposure histories. Particularly if you are working very frequently.

Thanks Andy, neat links!

Ken

[Sun Leaf]

I came across this article on a news source:

How to Rid Your Body of Mercury and Other Heavy Metals: A 3-Step Plan to Recover Your Health

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/autism-mercury-toxicity_b_497047.html

[jgmotamedi]

Ken, Thank you! I completely forgot about your article. I went back and reread it last night, and all the answers were there.

An interesting read Sun Leaf, although I am very skeptical of the the autism/mercury connection.

[Author]

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