"Rachel Carson is responsible for the death of millions of defenseless Africans"

One of my childhood memories is watching my sister make her daily supplement shakes. She had to drink up to 62 ounces of this think liquid every day. My sister was allergic to almost everything; eggs, beef, milk, strawberry, yeast and the list can go on and on to fill a piece paper front and back. She eventually grew out of majority of her allergies but still has to take some supplements for vitamins and minerals that she is missing due to her restricted diet.

Why am I making this correlation to Rachel Carson and her unfortunate successful fight to end the use of DDT in the fight against disease carrying mosquitoes? It is because what she forgot to do was to supplement the removal of DDT with another safe and effective pesticide. Her book, which is full of beautifully written metaphors and rhetoric grounded in possibilities and not fact, helped to push for the end of the use of DDT. Yes mosquitoes could have developed immunity to DDT similar to the roach and chlordane; but, it had not been proven yet. She forced the removal of the main source of protection from an entire group of people, without concern on how they would survive the next step with no protection. She was more concerned about nature instead of human life and not concerned enough about the effects it would have on a community of people. Her narrow view of life caused the lives of millions in Africa.

Some African countries, like South Africa continued to use DDT until the late 1990s, and then once they stopped using DDT they experienced devastating outbreaks from Malaria. Some South American countries are still using DDT to help control Malaria outbreaks with no known harmful effects on human life. Even with no actual proof of the ambiguous information in the Silent Spring, many countries are no longer using DDT and over 1 million people are dying from Malaria each year.

Where is the daily supplement to help extend life?

Mercury in the Environment & Human Health Risks Associated with Consumption

Global Cycle of Mercury

Link to Brochure

The Global Cycle of Mercury is very important to your health and wellness. Mercury is a chemical element that can not be created or destroyed; therefore it is important to understand how it effects our environment. Mercury cycles in the environment as a result of natural and human activities.

Natural Cycle
Mercury in the atmosphere is elemental mercury vapor, that can circulate in the atmosphere for up to a year, and therefore can be widely dispersed and transported thousands of miles from likely sources of emission. Most of the mercury in water, soil, sediments, or plants and animals is in the form of inorganic mercury salts and organic forms of mercury.

Inorganic forms of mercury can bound to airborne particles or in a gaseous form. In this form, mercury can be redeposit from the atmosphere by precipitation or dry deposited. Precipitation is the primary mechanism for mercury transport from atmosphere to land and water.

Once the mercury is deposited back to land or water, it is emitted back into the atmosphere as gas or particles to continue the cycle. Like other chemical agents, as mercury continues through its global cycle, it undergoes a series of complex chemical and physical changes.

Human Cycle
The human cycle of mercury is also called the anthropogenic cycle. Generally mercury collects in the water and moves up the marine life food chain ending with humans. The larger wildlife species feed on the fish, which in turn feed on smaller “forge” fish, which feed on plankton, which feed on algae and detritus. Thus, mercury is transferred through each level.

Conversion of Mercury into Methylmercury & Bioaccumulation into Food Chains
Methylation of mercury is a key step to understand how it can enter the food chain. Inorganic mercury transforms into methylated mercury in water in the sediment and the water column. Mercury builds to harmful levels in an organism when the rate of in put exceeds the rate of out put.. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 100% of the mercury in fish tissue is methylated.

Humans consume mercury when we eat the contaminated fish.

Regulations to Protect Human Consumption

The Federal Drug Administration mandates that fish sold for human consumption can not exceed 1 ppm of mercury. This level was set based on the possible health implications of consumption at higher rates. According to the EPA on average, mercury levels in freshwater fish can exceed the U.S. FDA levels; but, sea water fish, the mercury levels are close to ten times lower than the FDA required levels.

Health Effects
Mercury is a known human toxicant. The clinical effects of after exposure to high levels of mercury are neuro-disorders like “Mad Hatters Disease”. Neurological changes in exposure to mercury has been proven in many studies. The neurotoxin effects include subtle declines in motor skills and sensory ability, tremors, inability to walk, convulsions and death at extremely high levels of exposure.

Mercury Levels in the US
Mercury levels are higher in areas that are closer to industrial and combustion (anthropogenic) sources. Thirty-six states have warnings against the consumption of specific types of freshwater fish and ten states have statewide advisories posted at every body of freshwater.

Sources:

Mercury Technology Services. Global Mercury Cycle. Retrieved from: http://www.hgtech.com/Information/Global_Hg_Cycle.html

U.S. EPA. Mercury Study Report to Congress: Executive Summary (Dec 1997). Retrieved from: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/caaa/t3/reports/volume1.pdf