 |
 |
make mothering.com your home page |
| shopping guide | ||
editorial columns
family tools
community features
 |
growing child  child
health |
The Mercury is Rising: And Activists are Turning Up the Heat
By Jennifer Lunden
Related Articles:
Sidebar: Tuna Safety
Sidebar: Protecting America in the War Against Terror Act of 2005
Sidebar: The Mercury is Rising - Take Action!
Lorraine Comeau didn’t know she was bringing mercury home in her box of Rice Krispies. But when she unpacked her groceries, the seventy-nine-year-old great-grandmother from Lewiston, Maine, read the small print about the Spidey-Signal toy included inside. “Battery in toy contains mercury, dispose of properly.”
Lorraine was alarmed. “It’s in our fish supply, it’s in our food supply, and now they’re putting it in our cereal [boxes]? I thought it was very irresponsible of the Kellogg’s Company to do that.”
Article continues below
She called a local environmental organization, which referred her to the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) a nonprofit environmental advocacy group. She was impressed with their swift action. Within two days Lorraine watched NRCM representatives on the five o’clock news describing mercury’s threat to human health and the environment; showcasing boxes of specially marked products such as Apple Jacks, Frosted Flakes, and Rice Krispies Treats; and commenting on the hazards of putting the mercury-containing Spidey-Signal into seventeen million boxes of Kellogg’s cereals.
Hannaford, a large New England grocery chain, immediately pulled products containing the toys from store shelves.
And after threats from the attorneys general in Connecticut and New Hampshire—states which had recently passed comprehensive mercury products legislation banning, among other things, mercury-containing batteries—Kellogg’s agreed to remove boxes containing the Spidey-Signal from stores in those states, promising that they will use non-mercury batteries in future promotions, “demonstrating our commitment to reducing mercury-containing products that may be harmful to the environment.” The company also offered to provide postage-paid mailing materials to those wishing to return the Spidey Signal for proper disposal.
When asked, Comeau says, at first, that she doesn’t think of herself as an activist, “just a concerned citizen.”
Then, on second thought, her voice rising in an exclamation point, “Maybe I am…!”
Comeau points out that mercury is an issue that concerns everybody. “You’re not a Republican or a Democrat when it comes to the environment.” Her resolute action is reflective of growing concerns about the ubiquity of mercury in our environment and what risks the potent neurotoxin poses to our health.
Comeau worries about how mercury may be impacting her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren. Her worries are well-founded.
Pregnant women unwittingly expose their fetuses to the mercury secretly stored in their own bodies. It’s expelled through breast milk.i It’s injected into infants and children in certain vaccines. It’s placed into their mouths in the form of dental amalgams. It’s in classrooms. It’s in thermometers. It’s in light-up kids’ shoes. And it’s in fish.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one in twelve women of childbearing age has enough mercury in her body to put a fetus in danger of neurological harm. And the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently concluded that 630,000 infants are born each year in the U.S. with blood mercury levels high enough to double the risk of poor brain development. That’s twice the previous estimate, which means that 100 percent more children than previously thought are born each year with a heightened risk for disabilities like mental retardation, cerebral palsy, deafness, and blindness.
Fighting Thimerosal
During the ’90s, due to the rising number of routine shots containing thimerosal (a preservative composed of almost 50 percent mercury), millions of infants and toddlers were injected with enough mercury to exceed federal guidelines.ii So in 1999 the U.S. Public Health Service and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that mercury be removed from all childhood vaccines, and the EPA, along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), asked manufacturers to remove thimerosal from their products.iii More than six years later, some flu vaccines still contain thimerosal, and other vaccines are made with “trace amounts” of mercury.
Autism advocates say that’s not good enough. They point out that the rate of childhood autism and related disorders has skyrocketed from 1 in 10,000 in 1978iv to a staggering 1 in 166 children today.v They link that rise to the neurotoxic effects of mercury. “Although we are advised not to eat fish with mercury, we are told to stand by while it is injected directly in our 12-hour-old infants,” says Eileen Danneman, Director of the National Coalition of Organized Women (NCOW), one of a number of organizations taking a stand against thimerosal.
Bobbie Manning, the mother of 9-year-old Michael, who has autism, is one of those fighting to fully eradicate mercury from vaccines. She says when Michael was tested for mercury, the levels were “off the page”. She cites recent studies indicating that children with autism may have a pre-existing genetic condition—possibly triggered, ironically, by thimerosal—which limits their ability to expel mercury from their bodies,viand says that Michael has shown some improvement since chelation has helped him lower his levels.
Manning and other parents of children with autism were blindsided when the hastily passed Homeland Security Act of 2002 included an obscure, eleventh-hour provision preventing them from taking thimerosal’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly, to civil court for poisoning their kids with mercury. Manning, now vice-president of A-CHAMP (Advocates for Children’s Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning), says this is when her personal odyssey as an activist began. “The fact that ‘Thimerosal Lilly’ needed a protective act of Congress was proof to many of us that our claims about its toxicity were true.” She points out that the pharmaceutical corporation’s president sat on Bush’s Homeland Security Council.
Manning, who lives in Buffalo, New York, joined other concerned parents who fought hard to get the Lilly provision repealed. They met with their senators. They traveled to Washington and held a rally in Upper Senate Park. They jammed senate office fax machines. Within a few days of the new session, the provision was repealed.
Manning and her cohorts recently formed A-CHAMP, a political action organization aimed at rallying parents in response to political activities affecting their children. Its website (www.a-champ.org) documents federal and state efforts to eradicate mercury in vaccines and invites activism, sometimes as easy as the click of a mouse.
She says Robert Kennedy’s June 2005 article in Rolling Stone magazine (www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/06/16/thimerosal) detailing a CDC cover-up of research that evidenced a strong link between autism and mercury in vaccines—research the CDC, itself, commissioned—gave visibility and credibility to the efforts of autism advocates like her.
Indeed activists are succeeding in their push for legislative action. In 2003, by a near-unanimous vote, Iowa became the first state in the nation to ban mercury in vaccines. However, industry lobbyists pressured legislators to take the teeth out of the law, which was amended to permit “trace levels” of mercury, and to completely exempt flu vaccines.
On the same day that Iowa governor Tom Vilsack (D) signed that bill into law, Missouri senator Ken Jacob (D) filibustered a similar bill after big pharmaceutical companies donated money to support his bid for lieutenant governor. Lujene Clark, president and cofounder of NoMercury.org, subsequently spearheaded a successful campaign, dubbed “Operation: Accountability,” to oust the heavily favored incumbent Jacob in the election, urging concerned voters to send donations to his opponent, Bekki Cook. Cook won by a landslide 64 percent to Jacob’s 36 percent.
The bill passed when it was reintroduced next session, and was signed by Governor Bob Holden June 29th of this year.
In September 2004, despite strong pressure from the pharmaceutical industry, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation banning the use of mercury vaccines in pregnant women and children under three.
Illinois, Missouri, and Delaware, have passed similar legislation. And Bobbie Manning was triumphant when A-CHAMP efforts prevailed recently in her home state, and New York became sixth to ban thimerosal.
Fourteen other states have introduced legislation seeking to ban mercury from vaccines.
And efforts are underway to rally legislative support for a federal bill banning mercury in childhood vaccines. The Mercury-Free Vaccine Act of 2005 was introduced to the House by Representative Dave Weldon (R-FL), a physician. Representative Chuck Hagel (R-NE) introduced a companion bill to the Senate. Both bills would have to pass in order to send to the President and be signed into law.
Despite such legislative efforts, the CDC still recommends the flu vaccine for all women more than three months pregnant, even though the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices admits that “additional data are needed to confirm safety of vaccination during pregnancy.”vii In addition, the CDC and the AAP have recommended that all children six to twenty-three months of age get a flu shot. Neither has warned people to request thimerosal-free shots.viii
Fighting Dental Amalgams
Dentists put mercury into children’s mouths when they fill their teeth with “silver” fillings. Those fillings, called amalgams, are actually 50 percent mercury, mixed with other metals, including silver, copper, tin, and zinc. The American Dental Association (ADA) maintains that when combined with these metals, mercury is chemically bound into a “hard, stable, and safe substance.” But a study from the Journal of Dental Research found that mercury vapor in exhaled air after chewing is proportional to the number of fillings in the mouth, sometimes reaching more than the maximum allowable industrial level for mercury exposure.x And the World Health Organization (WHO) committee of mercury toxicologists concluded that dental amalgams are the largest source of mercury in adults not occupationally exposed.xi
Representative Diane Watson (D) of California has introduced a bill that would ban interstate commerce of mercury intended for use in dental fillings, effectively prohibiting dental amalgams in the U.S. The bill is stalled, however, with only 10 cosponsors.
So activists like Maine’s Pam Anderson, who works as an office manager for her dentist husband, are pursuing changes on the state level. Pam fought to get an informed consent law passed, requiring dentists to provide patients with information about the risks of dental amalgams. This groundbreaking 2001 legislation is being used as a model for other states seeking to address concerns about mercury in amalgams. New Hampshire and California also now have informed consent laws on the books, and Arizona is working to pass similar legislation.
Activists have petitioned to ban amalgams in Connecticut. And an amendment to a bill in California requiring the state medical insurance program (Medi-Cal) to pay for alternatives to dental amalgams passed last year.
Mercury in fillings touches even those who have no amalgams in their mouths. When replacing old amalgams, dentists routinely flush the mercury fillings out of their offices with the rest of the wastewater. While the American Dental Association (ADA) denies that dentists contribute significantly to mercury in the waste stream, the New England Zero Mercury Campaign, a coalition of environmental organizations, maintains that 50 percent of mercury in wastewater comes from dental amalgams. Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the largest sewage treatment plant in Rhode Island have all implemented programs requiring dentists to install amalgam separators that remove mercury waste from their discharge. In 2002 the ADA issued a statement “encouraging use of amalgam separators.”xii
Eradicating Mercury in Schools
Children are at risk of mercury exposure even in their schools. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry notes “increasing numbers of metallic mercury spills and contamination involving schoolchildren.”xiii In June, 1996, for instance, “mercury was taken from a middle school in St. Joseph, Missouri and used in and outside of school by a group of teenagers.”
Approximately 200 children were tested for mercury exposure. One was hospitalized; five more utilized outpatient treatment to remove the mercury from their bodies.xiv
In March of this year, D.C. teenagers admitted guilt for a mercury spill that closed their school for days. They told police they obtained the mercury from the school science lab. All mercury was supposed to have been removed from their school in 2003, after a student from another D.C. school stole mercury from the chemistry lab and gave it to friends. That school was closed for a month due to the extensity of its contamination.xv
Minnesota is addressing the problem of mercury in schools with the aid of a furry assistant. Clancy, the mercury-detecting dog, has helped sniff out some of the over 210 pounds of mercury and mercury-bearing equipment that has been removed from 38 schools. His handlers educate students and teachers about the dangers of mercury.
Vermont has successfully eliminated mercury from most schools, and Washington is working to do the same. New York has introduced a bill prohibiting the use, purchase, and storage of mercury and mercury instruments in schools.
Fighting Mercury from Coal-Burning Plants
Mercury in the environment originates primarily from coal-burning power plants. It is belched out of smokestacks, blows across the country, sinks into our open waters, transforms into the more potent and dangerous methylmercury, and moves on up the food chain, until it’s displayed on ice in the seafood department at our local supermarkets.
A February 2005 study published in the journal Health and Place found a 61 percent increase in autism for every thousand pounds of mercury released into the environment.
Four years ago, the EPA’s own scientists said that the Clean Air Act could achieve a 90 percent reduction of mercury emissions from power plants using Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT). A Clinton administration EPA decision to impose MACT standards on mercury by 2008 would have done just that. But following a proposal using language “copied word-for-word from industry lobbying materials,” according to the Washington Post, in March of this year Bush’s EPA issued the Clean Air Mercury Rule, which abrogates the determination that mercury from power plants should be regulated as a hazardous air pollutant. This relaxed definition paves the way for implementation of a “cap and trade” program, allowing some mercury polluters to avoid making any reductions at all by buying pollution credits from other, cleaner plants. The resulting mercury “hot spots” will jeopardize human health and the environment in some communities more than others. Bush’s Clean Air Mercury Rule allows polluters to continue releasing mercury into the environment until 2018, and targeted 70% reductions will not be achieved until 2030—12 years later than the stated target date—according to the EPA’s own modeling.xvii
The EPA issued these rollbacks despite vocal opposition from both the public and its elected representatives. More than 700,000 concerned citizens submitted comments, the largest response to any issue in EPA history.xviii And a bipartisan group of 180 members of the House of Representatives signed a letter to EPA administrator Michael Leavitt urging the agency to withdraw its proposed changes and fulfill the mandates of the Clean Air Act.
Jon Hinck, Toxics Project Director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, says the administration’s new rule is dangerous and deceptive, that it will in fact allow power plants to generate three times more mercury over the next 50 years than would be allowed if the administration adhered to the Clean Air Act. “Hazardous pollutants are supposed to be regulated under the most protective standard. It is hard to imagine how mercury from power plants could be treated as anything other than hazardous.”
The NRCM, along with other environmental groups, some Native American tribes, and more than a dozen states, are suing the EPA over the mercury rule. They charge that the agency is violating the Clean Air Act by refusing to adopt MACT standards, endangering public health and the environment. Hinck asserts that the lawsuit “simply asks the court to require the Bush administration to obey the law” and mandate the EPA to enforce MACT standards as expeditiously as possible.
And Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) have introduced a bipartisan resolution that would nullify the rule exempting mercury from power plants from being treated as a hazardous air pollutant. If passed, this resolution would, according to advocacy group US PIRG, “send the administration back to the drawing board to write a rule that complies with the law and protects public health.” Thirty senators have cosigned the resolution.
The National Wildlife Federation reports that the U.S. could enact MACT standards for the price of one cup of coffee per household per month.xix And the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis has estimated that cutting mercury emissions in accordance with the Clean Air Act “could yield benefits—including reduced cognitive impairment in infants and children and fewer heart attacks in adults—of between $100 million and $5 billion per year.”xx
Speedy action is critical. Forty-eight states—an increase of over 60 percent in ten years—have issued fish consumption advisories warning the general public about the risks that certain freshwater fish pose to young children and women who are pregnant or of childbearing age. One-third of U.S. lakes and a quarter of its rivers are contaminated with enough mercury to make fish unsafe for human consumption. The number of contaminated river miles has increased by 65 percent in just two years.xxi Loons in 70 percent of New Hampshire lakes have mercury levels that put them at risk.xxii And mercury in rain falling on Maine’s Acadia National Park is twenty-four times greater than the EPA’s surface water standard for protecting human health.xxiii
Getting Things Done: The New England Zero Mercury Campaign, and Beyond
Mercury is particularly insidious in New England. Thirty percent of mercury found in New England comes from national sources, migrating from west to east on prevailing winds. That’s why in 1998 the New England governors, noting that mercury was “pervasive in freshwater fish in the Northeast at levels that pose plausible health risks to people,”xxiv committed to “virtually eliminate” mercury emissions in the region. They determined that if they could eradicate the 47 percent derived from local sources, they could significantly reduce the impact of mercury in the region.
The New England Zero Mercury Campaign was formed to challenge the governors to achieve this goal by 2010. The Campaign releases an annual “Report Card” for each state, rating its progress based on a detailed plan that includes goals to phase out mercury in consumer products, to reduce mercury from dental amalgam, to reduce mercury from fossil fuel combustion, to protect human health from mercury exposure, and to advocate for federal policy action on mercury.
Since there are currently no federal regulations governing mercury emissions from coal-burning plants, and the new federal rule does not prevent states from imposing stricter controls, two New England states, Connecticut and Massachusetts, have become the first in the nation to enact state regulations, requiring 90 percent mercury emission reductions by 2008, the same as the Clean Air Act is supposed to be accomplishing federally. Massachusetts has, in addition, established a goal to eliminate not only emissions but all mercury use.
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire have taken action against the second largest source of mercury pollution: municipal waste incinerators. Rhode Island has banned them. Massachusetts has implemented a moratorium. And New Hampshire has mandated incinerator emission reductions.
Mercury-containing medical waste is routinely burned in hospital incinerators. Massachusetts has taken action to reduce the use and release of mercury from hospitals. Maine now requires disclosure of mercury in products sold to hospitals.
Maine has also begun holding industry accountable for its mercury waste. It recently passed landmark legislation with an electronic waste law requiring manufacturers to take responsibility for the collection and recycling of all computer monitors and televisions containing mercury and other toxins. And in 2002 Maine was the first in the nation to implement a mercury auto switch recovery law after successfully defending against a legal action brought to federal court by the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers. The law requires auto manufacturers to pay for collection and recycling of mercury switches in cars. New Jersey and Arkansas followed suit. Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York have similar legislation pending.
At home, mercury can pose a risk to children and adults when a thermometer breaks. Rhode Island has organized exchanges, where people can turn in their mercury thermometers and get new digital ones. New Hampshire, Maine, Illinois, Washington and Nebraska have banned them altogether. In Vermont, all drugstores and most supermarkets have pledged to remove mercury thermometers from their shelves.
While New England leads the way in mercury legislation, at least twenty-nine states introduced similar mercury bills in the 2003–2004 legislative sessions. A number of states have recently passed or introduced bills mandating labeling of mercury products, requiring amalgam separators, prohibiting improper disposal of mercury-containing products, setting up mercury collection and electronic recycling programs, and mandating the recovery of mercury auto switches.
Illinois and New York have introduced comprehensive mercury reduction bills. Washington has passed one. But not all states are on board. That’s why federal legislation is so critical.
Mercury Endangers All of Us
Legislation is also critical because young children and fetuses aren't the only ones whose bodies are impacted by mercury. A long-term study of the effect of chronic low-level mercury exposure indicates that it may be more harmful to older children than previously believed. Children on the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic consume relatively high levels of mercury due to a diet high in seafood. The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, found deteriorating electrical signals along a circuit in their brains and “subtle difficulties in controlling blood pressure.”xxv
In adults, mercury is now being identified as a factor in heart disease. In one study, people who died of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, a type of congestive heart failure, had up to 22,000 times more mercury in their heart muscles then control subjects.xxvi
And the first study to test adults for neuropsychological effects from low-level mercury exposure from fish found “observable deficits in neurobehavioral performance measures,” despite no “detectable alterations in mood or affect.”xxvii This means that one can be affected by mercury without even knowing it. Because mercury is bioaccumulative and toxicity is not easily identified, its diverse symptoms—including weakness, memory problems, headaches, irritability, insomnia, nervousness, joint pains, tremors, and changes in vision or hearing—arise so gradually that few think to blame the ubiquitous heavy metal. The study concludes, “Recent proposals for public health policy, such as advisory levels for fish consumption, have generally assumed that children are significantly more sensitive than adults to the neurotoxic effects of [mercury]. However, this study suggests that adults may be as sensitive as children to [mercury].”xxviii It seems likely that the mercury in our fish, our teeth, and our vaccines is compromising the health of adults as well as their children.
The Good News
The anti-mercury movement is building momentum, and its efforts are paying off. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has announced that the state has cut mercury emissions by 68 percent since 1990, when it started cracking down on the problem. And after pollution controls were installed on municipal and medical waste incinerators in Florida, emissions there dropped by almost 99 percent.xxix Scientists were surprised to find rapid results for local wildlife. A ten-year study showed “a 70 percent decline in mercury in bird feathers and a 60 percent decrease in fish tissue,”xxx prompting Florida Department of Environmental Protection secretary David B. Struhs to comment, “Mercury levels in the natural environment are a worldwide concern but local investments can yield local results. This is sound scientific evidence that advances in cleanup technologies can significantly reduce pollutants, improve water quality and recover wildlife.”xxxi
Results like these indicate that activists like the once-neophyte Lorraine Comeau, Pam Anderson, and Bobbie Manning, are successfully agitating for change. “People are rising up,” declares Dr. Larry Hanus, a former dentist now president of the holistic health care advocacy group, “saying if the government won’t protect us, then we’re going to protect ourselves.”
You, too can rise up. Get more information at these websites:
The Mercury Policy Project
www.mercurypolicy.org
The National Wildlife Federation
www.nwf.org
The Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.nrdc.org
Greenpeace USA
www.greenpeaceusa.org
Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)
www.pirg.org
AutismOne
www.autismone.org
Moms Against Mercury
www.momsagainstmercury.com
Coalition for Mercury Free Drugs (CoMeD)
www.MercuryFreeDrugs.com
National Vaccine Information Center
www.nvic.org
NoMercury.org
www.nomercury.org
Dental Amalgam Mercury Syndrome (DAMS) 1(800)311-6265
www.amalgam.org
DAMS@usfamily.net
Natural Resources Council of Maine
www.maineenvironment.org
Jennifer Lunden, a counselor and journalist, believes that high levels of mercury contributed to her chronic fatigue syndrome and multiple chemical sensitivity. She is currently at work on a book exploring CFS and MCS as physical manifestations of social ills. She lives in Portland, Maine.
NOTES:upiNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/thimerosalqa.htm.
upiiR. Pitt, a^?oeThe Flu Vaccine and You: What Parents Need to Know About the New Recommendations,a^?? Mothering 125 (July-August 2004): 45.
upiv Autism Society of America, http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/4/prweb118356.htm.A^ A^ A^
upv from a^?oeAutism A.L.A.R.M,a^?? an informational document sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control, among others.A^ See www.medicalhomeinfo.org.A^
upvi J. Bradstreet, a^?oeA Case-Control Study of Mercury Burden in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders,a^?? Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons 8, no. 3 (summer 2003), and A.S. Holmes et al., a^?oeReduced Levels of Mercury in First Baby Haircuts of Autist6ic Children,a^?? International Journal of Toxicology 22 (2003).
upixAmerican Dental Association, a^?oeADA Statement on Dental Amalgam (8 January 2002).A^ www.ada.org/prof/resources/positions/statements/amalgam.asp.
upxM.J. Vimy, et al., a^?oeSerial Measurements of Intra-Oral Air Mercury; Estimation of Daily Dose from Dental Amalgam,a^?? Journal of Dental Research 64 (1985): 1072-1075.
upxi L. Cashman, a^?oeCongress Continues Probe of Dental Mercury,a^?? Dental Truth (December 2003):4.
upxiiNew England Zero Mercury Campaign, a^?oeExecutive Summary: The 2002 Report Card on Mercury Elimination in New England.a^??
upxiiiAgency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.A^ www.atsdr.cdc.gov.
upxvV.D. Haynes and D Wilgoren, a^?oeCardozo Evacuated I Spill of Mercury,a^?? Washington Post(24 February 2005).
upxviSee also,A^ J. Eilperin, a^?oeInfluence on Mercury Proposal Probed,a^?? Washington Post (22 September 2004): A29.
upxviia^?oeEPA Plan to Miss Target Date for 70 Percent Reductionsa^??hReport,a^?? Greenwire (22 April 2005).
upxviiiJ. Eilperin, a^?oeEPA Delays Mercury Regulations,a^?? The Washington Post (30 April 2004).
upxixThe Natural Resources Council of Maine, Environews(29 June 2005).
upxxJ.K. Hammitt, a^?oeIs the EPA Lowballing the Mercury Risk?a^?? LA Times(13 April 2005).
upxxi E.Weise and T. Watson, a^?oeWarnings on River, Lake Fish Jump; EPA Reports Rise in Mercury Alerts: Children, Mothers Could Be at Risk,a^?? USA Today (25 August 2004) A. 01.
upxiiNational Wildlife Federation, a^?oeTackling Mercury: A Guide to Safe Fishing in New England,a^?? (July 2004), 6.
upxxivA. Irvine, a^?oePast, Present, Future: The Five Stories of the Past Five Years that Wea^?(TM)ll Be Talking about Five Years from Now,a^?? Portland Phoenix (15 October 2004): 14.
upxxvH. Pearson, a^?oeMercury Affects Brains of Adolescents,a^?? Nature (6 February 2004).A^ www.nature.com/nsu/040202/040404-16.html.
upxxviA. Frustaci et al., a^?oeMarked Elevation of Myocardial Trace Elements in Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy Compared with Secondary Cardiac Dysfunction,a^?? Journal of the American College of Cardiology 33, no. 6 (May 1999): 1578-1583.
upxxvii E.M. Yokoo et al., a^?oeLow Level Methylmercury Exposure Affects Neuropsychological Function in Adults,a^?? Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source 2, no. 8 (4 June 2003): 8.A^ www.ehjournal.net/content/2/1/8.
upxxixFlorida Department of Environmental Protection, www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/news/2003/nov/1106.htm.
Featured Product
Bella Materna Seamless Nursing Bra
A great everyday bra for during Maternity and Nursing. The cups stretch for changes overtime, flexible underwires make this a very comfortable adaptable bra.
.jpg)