Sebtopiaris wrote:Arana wrote:Pretty much. Vaccines use ethyl mercury, which gets flushed right out of your body. Methyl mercury, which is in tuna and is the kind being dumped in Texas... well, that'll fuck everything up.
Couldn't the presence of Methyl Mercury in tuna be attributed to the dumping of the compound into waterways?
No, it's from burning coal, at least in the US. See
this:
US EPA wrote:Sources of mercury. Mercury is an element in the earth's crust. Humans cannot create or destroy mercury. Pure mercury is a liquid metal, sometimes referred to as quicksilver that volatizes readily. It has traditionally been used to make products like thermometers, switches, and some light bulbs.
Mercury is found in many rocks including coal. When coal is burned, mercury is released into the environment. Coal-burning power plants are the largest human-caused source of mercury emissions to the air in the United States, accounting for over 50 percent of all domestic human-caused mercury emissions (Source: 2005 National Emissions Inventory). EPA has estimated that about one quarter of U.S. emissions from coal-burning power plants are deposited within the contiguous U.S. and the remainder enters the global cycle. Burning hazardous wastes, producing chlorine, breaking mercury products, and spilling mercury, as well as the improper treatment and disposal of products or wastes containing mercury, can also release it into the environment. Current estimates are that less than half of all mercury deposition within the U.S. comes from U.S. sources. More information.
Sources of mercury compounds. In the U.S., mercury compounds are manufactured in small amounts for specialty uses, such as chemical and pharmaceutical applications. Larger quantities of these compounds are generated as byproducts from pollution control activities at gold mines or in waste. Elemental mercury is processed in the U.S. from byproduct mercury compounds, and an unknown quantity of mercury compounds is imported into the United States for conversion to elemental mercury. Learn more about mercury compounds (PDF).
Exposure to mercury. Mercury in the air eventually settles into water or onto land where it can be washed into water. Once deposited, certain microorganisms can change it into methylmercury, a highly toxic form that builds up in fish, shellfish and animals that eat fish. Fish and shellfish are the main sources of methylmercury exposure to humans. Methylmercury builds up more in some types of fish and shellfish than others. The levels of methylmercury in fish and shellfish depend on what they eat, how long they live and how high they are in the food chain.
(Links in original lost; see that page for its sources.)
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 6:33 pm