Olmsted on Autism: How the Media Misses Mercury

By Dan Olmsted

I was born in Chicago (the Great American City, a topic for another time) and I get back there as often as I can. Last week the Chicago Tribune happened to launch a total makeover while I was in town. The humongous photo and headline on Page 1 was Our Toxic Air -- A Tribune Watchdog Report.

The story, which obviously had been readied to make the makeover feel as substantive as possible, was not bad overall. It began: "People living in Chicago and nearby suburbs face some of the highest risks of cancer, lung disease and other health problems linked to toxic chemicals pouring from industry smokestacks, according to a Tribune analysis of federal data." Cook County, in fact, "ranked worst in the nation for dangerous air pollution, based on 2005 data."

The article points out that "dirty air is more dangerous than has been thought. Heavy metals and chemicals these factories put into the air -- such as chromium, lead, manganese and sulfuric acid -- have been linked to cancer, learning disabilities and other ailments."

Too true. But what about the most toxic pollutant of all? Mercury isn't even mentioned in this lengthy piece. Coal, which throws off copious amounts of mercury as well as lead and other pollutants, never appears either. Nor is there any mention of childhood developmental issues beyond the glancing mention cited above.

What's the problem with the Trib's focus? The problem is that coal burning, and especially the mercury from coal pollution, is our NUMBER ONE environmental health issue, especially for children. Yet it's nowhere to be found.

But according to the Illinois Sierra Club, "Chicago area residents are already breathing polluted air that violates federal health standards. A significant part of this pollution comes from existing coal plants in and around Chicago."

And according to the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization, the Crawford and Fisk power plants "are the two largest sources of particulate-forming air pollution in Chicago and contribute to the area exceeding federal health standards for particle pollution. …

According to the most recent data available (2003–04), the two plants combined emit:
  * 230 lbs of mercury, which causes brain damage;
  * 17,765 tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which cause ozone and acid rain, and become particulate matter that contributes to breathing problems such as asthma;
   * 260,000 lbs of soot."

Now that's a lot of mercury (and a lot of brain damage). How do I know? I know because I read it in the Trib in 2007, when it broke a big story with the banner headline: "BP dumps mercury in lake." "Although the federal government ordered states more than a decade ago to dramatically limit mercury discharges into the Great Lakes, the BP refinery in northwest Indiana will be allowed to continue pouring small amounts of the toxic metal into Lake Michigan for a least another five years."

And how much mercury might that be? "Federal records analyzed by the Tribune show BP puts 2 pounds of mercury into the lake every year. … That amount is small compared with the mercury that falls into the water from air pollution, but mercury builds up in the environment and is so toxic that even tiny drops can threaten fish and people."

Two pounds of mercury a year going into the Great Lakes is a banner headline in 2007, but hundreds of pounds of mercury from coal-fired plants does not merit a mention a year later in a front-page story on "Our Toxic Air."

What is going on here? The Tribune has shown a commitment to environmental health reporting that is commendable. So consider this a critique, not a criticism. But still … it is intellectually incoherent to "expose" two pounds of mercury in 2007 and a year later glide right past hundreds of pounds that pollute our bodies, our land, our lakes and streams and oceans -- and ultimately the fish we eat.

And how do I know that part about the fish we eat? I read it in the Trib, too, which ran a series titled Mercury Menace in 2005 that began: "Supermarkets throughout the Chicago area are routinely selling seafood highly contaminated with mercury, a toxic metal that can cause learning disabilities in children and neurological problems in adults, a Tribune investigation has found. … Avoiding mercury-contaminated fish is further complicated by the fact that the metal is ubiquitous in the world's oceans, lakes and rivers. So it likely does not matter who catches the seafood, processes it or sells it. In fact, many supermarket chains share the same suppliers."

To summarize what I've pieced together about my beloved, broad-shouldered but toxic hometown: Industry spews hundreds of pounds of mercury into the Chicago air every year, mostly from coal-fired plants; even "tiny drops" of mercury can cause brain damage, especially in our children. Two pounds a year flowing into the Great Lakes is a headline-grabbling outrage. Mercury-saturated fish contaminated by all this coal-fired mercury pollution are unsafe, especially for pregnant women, but largely unregulated and unacknowledged.

Yet try finding all this in one coherent synthesis. When we talk about air pollution, we forget about mercury. When we talk about mercury in fish, we don't focus on the air pollution that causes it. When we make waves about a "small" spill into the Great Lakes, we don't talk about the many-times-more-massive background level that is the day-in-and-day-out nightmare we're facing.

And of course, when we talk about the ability of environmental mercury to cause brain damage and developmental problems in children, we never, ever talk about autism. Since "we know" mercury in vaccines can't cause autism -- the doctors who inject it and the agencies who approve and recommend it say so -- we "know" that environmental mercury pollution can't, either.

Yet Raymond Palmer and colleagues at the University of Texas found, in two separate and stunning studies, that the autism rate was higher in Texas counties with more mercury exposure from toxic industrial releases. In another overlooked but important study, researchers found children living in areas with the highest level of mercury pollution in the San Francisco Bay area were roughly twice as likely to have autism. The Environmental Protection Agency now says 6 percent of American children are born to mothers with a mercury level high enough to put them at risk for health problems.

The same week I was in Chicago, there was another article titled, "Containing contaminant." It begins, "Stockpiles of toxic mercury kept by industry soon will be stored safely in the United States instead of ending up on the world market where it might pollute the environment." Oh Lord, no: Mercury on the world market might pollute the environment. Here we come to save the day!

"Although the number of U.S. companies that use mercury in industrial processes or products is declining, concerns are growing over exporting the silvery metal to loosely regulated industries in developing countries. ..."

What planet am I on here, not to mention what country am I in? We -- WE -- allow loosely regulated industries to saturate us with mercury, acknowledge it causes brain damage in tiny amounts, observe an epidemic of developmental disorders including autism in our kids, miss the implications entirely and congratulate ourselves on "helping" those benighted developing countries do it our way.

And because we refuse to ban mercury outright in medical products -- the way we did with mercury fungicides decades ago -- other countries follow our lead on this, too, and continue to use lethal ethyl mercury in mass vaccination campaigns.

Here's what needs a makeover: the way the media gets its mind around the most important domestic story of our time.
--
Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.

Comments

[Alison]

It's scary that few in the medical community will stand up and say 'we don't know what's causing autism and we're not certain that it's not the vaccinations or the amounts at which they are administered.' I think there's a strong link between mercury and autism. I mean, why now? Why is autism such a problem all of a sudden? When/if I have a baby, I'm going to be watching him/her like a hawk to try to detect the signs. And I'm going to wait until they're older to get them vaccinated. It's just not worth it...it's so scary.

[Diane]

A new book - Lake Effect - talks about pollution as personal cause

As it turned out, growing up in Waukegan, Ill., on the shores of Lake Michigan, provided great health risks for Nancy Nichols and her sister Sue.

"Every chemical known dangerous to human health was in one of three toxic sites there," Nancy A. Nichols said.

Her book, "Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town's Toxic Legacy," provides considerable evidence that environmental pollution played a role in the ovarian cancer that killed her sister and a rare form of pancreatic cancer that afflicted her.

Island Press published her book in August.

Publication of Ms. Nichols' book fulfilled a deathbed wish of her sister to investigate whether her ovarian cancer could be linked to industrial pollutions in Waukegan and Lake Michigan. That posed a sizable challenge given the difficulty of tracking a precise cause of cancer, be it genes, lifestyle, environmental exposure, or a combination of the three.

Ms. Nichols said she was aware of such difficulties. Yet she presents convincing proof that Waukegan and Lake Michigan are prime suspects in the sisters' cancers.

"I have no courtroom proof, but I have no doubt either," said Ms. Nichols, now of Boston. "In the book I don't say this caused my cancer. I show the huge amount of evidence, then let readers make their own conclusions."

She said the nation's medical system is not set up to ask why cancers occur and receives no encouragement or support to track down the causes.

For that reason, Ms. Nichols said, her story is universal. Many people live near polluted water, landfills and toxic waste sites. Suspicions about cancer and its causes should compel people to raise questions and do research whether environmental exposures might be a cause.

It's a story "played out time and time again in this country," she said.

"Lots of people are asking questions about asthma, autism and learning disabilities and the environment," Ms. Nichols said. "I wanted to use my story to try to help people think about these issues."

Waukegan has numerous Superfund sites, which the Environmental Protection Agency has earmarked for cleanup. Lake Michigan also is polluted with contaminants including PCBs -- polychlorinated biphenyls that now are banned industrial chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects and illnesses.

"I don't have a legislative agenda, but I think the Great Lakes should be cleaned up because it represents 20 percent of Earth's fresh water supply," Ms. Nichols said

She was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer, but after surgery and chemotherapy she said she thinks she is cured. She has not needed further treatment.

People magazine said her book represents "a chilling indictment of how government and big business prize profits over health." It describes "Lake Effect" as "a moving tale of one woman's struggle to understand why."

[David Geier]

VERY IMPORTANT, BUT OVER LOOKED !!

Dan Olmsted mentions in his article about the fact, "The Environmental Protection Agency now says 6 percent of American children are born to mothers with a mercury level high enough to put them at risk for health problems."

The problem is that no one is actually looking at the levels of mercury present in the fetuses born in the US.

It is well known that more mercury goes to the developing fetus in utero than the mother, but exactly how much are we talking??

Well a little known study was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal of Environmental Health Perspectives. This is a journal published by the US National Institutes of Health. This new study was not published on some infants in Iraq, China, or some unknown third nation, but on AMERICAN BABIES.

This study was titled, "Relation between Cord Blood Mercury Levels and Early Child Development in a World Trade Center Cohort." (Lederman et al., 2008, pgs 1085-91). This new study probably did not receive much attention because it concluded, "Blood mercury was not significantly raised in women living or working close to the [World Trade Center] WTC site in the weeks after 11 September 2001."

The problem is that the study revealed some of the most shocking data I have ever seen with respect to the mass mercury poisoning of America's children.

Namely, the new study reported the following:

"In the present study, maternal blood mercury was similar to values from the 1999–2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Jones et al. 2004), where the geometric mean for women of child-bearing age was 0.92 µg/L (present study, 0.91 µg/L), with 5.66% (present study, 5.95%) having levels ≥ 5.8 µg/L. Our median cord blood total mercury
level was 4.3 µg/L (32.1% ≥ 5.8 µg/L)"

** What this is saying in simple terms is that about 6 percent of the pregnant mom's sampled had blood levels of mercury above the US Environmental Protection Agency's safety limit (i.e. ≥ 5.8 µg/L), and that this observation was consistent with what the US Government reported previously (and Dan Olmsted's quoted numbers).

** What is SHOCKING is that among these same mothers, the cord blood levels (i.e. the mercury levels present in the fetus) revealed that about 32 percent had blood mercury levels abouve the US Environmental Protection Agency's safety limit (i.e. ≥ 5.8 µg/L).

** This means that about 1 in 3 infants born in the US has more mercury than the US Environmental Protecion Agency considers safe!!!! Further, it is important to note that the US Environmental Protection Agency blood mercury limit was not pulled from thin air, but rather derived from human mercury poisonings.

And if all of this was not bad enough, these same researchers provide us with a little insight on how the US levels of mercury in the blood of infants faired with the blood mercury levels observed in some other European nations. They stated:

"...0.85 µg/L in a recent Polish study (Jedrychowski et al. 2006). In a Swedish
study (Bjornberg et al. 2003), median cord
blood methylmercury was 1.3 µg/L (range,
0.1–5.7 µg/L)..."

** Thus, US infants are born with about 5-times more mercury in their blood than Polish infants and about 3-times more mercury in their blood than Swedish infants!!!

** Further, and even worse, whereas about 32 percent of US infants have blood mercury levels in excess of the US Environmental Protection Agency's safety limit (i.e. ≥ 5.8 µg/L), NOT ONE Swedish infant tested had a level of mercury in their blood in excess of the US Environmental Protection Agency's safety limit!!!

Finally, the new study also evaluated the effects of having elevated levels of mercury in the blood of US infants. It was observed that the US infants examined were found to have significant deficits on developmental psychomotor test scores at 36 months and IQ scores (performance, verbal, and full domains) at 48 months with increasing blood mercury levels. In other words, increasing cord blood mercury levels (i.e. fetal blood mercury levels) were found to be significantly associated with long-term mercury poisoning of the brains of US infants.

[teresa]

Google News Alert for: coal Illinois Mercury toxicOlmsted on Autism: How the Media Misses Mercury
Age of Autism - Trumbull,USA
But what about the most toxic pollutant of all? Mercury isn't even mentioned in this lengthy piece. Coal, which throws off copious amounts of mercury as ...
See all stories on this topic

[Teresa]

Dan,

I was born here too, and I'm still here -- Hg and all. Why oh why the Trib has changed their tune on mercury is baffling. I know Michael Hawthorne received a lot of heat from the Tuna industry, local restaurants, and the utility industry (I'm having that feeling of deja vu). I know I wrote to him and Sam Roe 2 years ago -- here it is..and below it is an article Michael Hawthorne did related to this very hot topic--

Thank you, Dan! btw, you came up on my google alert re "mercury in Illinois" today--you are the "truth-seeker" I mention below.

Hi Sam and Michael,

I wanted to congratulate both of you on such an impressive and significant event: Having our governor publicly announce reducing mercury from coal-fired power plants in IL. He specifically mentioned your articles as THE reason!

I have emailed you both about the dilemma of mercury in vaccines, more significantly, the flu shot. As I told a friend, I am hopeful that you will look into this issue, but completely understand if having both the Tuna AND Pharm Industry scorn you may be a bit much to ask but I am passionate about this very personal issue.

By the tone of your articles it didn't seem that you were concerned about what the Tuna companies or the federal agencies thought of you but that the truth had to come out. This to me takes guts and much integrity.

So, this is my congratulatory note and I guess a plea for further inquiry into the use of mercury in pharmaceuticals. If you both are burnt, I would completely understand but if you can point me in the direction of some good "truth-seekers", I'd be obliged, especially since the IDPH issued an exemption on banning thimerosal in flu shots last week.

Much gratitude,

Teresa Conrick

http://tinyurl.com/djna6
EPA chief turns coal lobbyist
Mercury foe now represents a top polluter

By Michael Hawthorne
Tribune staff reporter
Published February 9, 2006

As director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Renee Cipriano pushed for tough limits on the mercury pollution that contaminates every river, stream and lake in the state.

Six months after she left state government, Cipriano still is talking about mercury. Only now she's working for a power company that's trying to scuttle mercury standards proposed last month by her former boss, Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

In yet another example of state officials passing through a revolving door between government and special interests, Cipriano is one of two former top Blagojevich aides hired as utility lobbyists, according to recently filed registration forms.

A third Blagojevich confidant continues to represent Midwest Generation, owner of five coal-fired power plants in the Chicago area, while acting as chief spokesman for the governor's re-election campaign.

Cipriano said she and others in her Chicago law firm were hired by St. Louis-based Ameren to work on a variety of issues, including Blagojevich's proposal to cut mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants by 90 percent within three years.

Ameren and other utilities argue that the state's rules would cost too much and provide few, if any, health benefits. The companies back a less stringent national proposal from the Bush administration that would give them until at least 2018 to reduce emissions by 70 percent.

"My job as a lawyer is to represent my client, and that's what I'm doing," Cipriano said.

A 2003 ethics law bars state employees from working for companies they formerly regulated for at least one year. Cipriano left the state payroll on June 30, but an EPA spokeswoman argued Wednesday that the law doesn't apply to Cipriano's new job lobbying for a power company subject to scores of environmental regulations.

Coal-fired power plants, including seven owned by Ameren, largely are responsible for Illinois ranking fifth in the nation in emissions of mercury, a toxic metal that can affect health, particularly in young children.

Mercury falls into waterways, where bacteria convert it into a potent form that becomes more dangerous as it moves up the food chain. The highest levels generally are found in predator fish such as bass, pike and walleye.

The mercury problem is bad enough in Illinois that pregnant or nursing women, young children and women of childbearing age are warned to limit eating fish caught in all state waters to one meal a week. About a dozen lakes and rivers are so contaminated that some kinds of fish should be eaten only once a month.

Enlisting current and former members of Blagojevich's inner circle reflects the high-stakes attempt by power companies to thwart the governor's mercury proposal, which would impose the most stringent standards in the nation.

Public health groups and environmental activists are backing the governor's plan, noting that there have been several successful tests of mercury controls at coal plants. Most involve relatively inexpensive equipment that filters mercury particles.

"We're disappointed these companies are choosing to fight instead of cleaning up," said Jack Darin, director of the Illinois chapter of the Sierra Club. "We would be a lot healthier if these companies spent their money on pollution controls instead of spending it on lawyers and lobbyists."

To help make the industry's case, Ameren hired Cipriano and six other members of her Chicago law firm, including Mary Gade, who was EPA director under former Gov. Jim Edgar.

New role a 180 on mercury

Cipriano's role is the direct opposite of what it was when she served as director of the state's environmental agency. Two years ago, she testified at a U.S. EPA hearing that the federal proposal favored by utilities was "too lax and must be tightened."

Mercury from power plants "must be seriously addressed if we are to reduce this environmental health hazard that particularly threatens children and pregnant women who consume fish," Cipriano wrote later in an EPA newsletter.

Her new client, Ameren, would be among the companies hit hardest by Blagojevich's mercury rules. The utility's coal plants released 1,023 pounds of mercury into the air during 2003, the latest year for which figures are available from the U.S. EPA's Toxics Release Inventory.

`Hired for expertise' Another firm hired as part of Ameren's beefed-up presence in Springfield includes lobbyist Julie Curry, a former state lawmaker who was Blagojevich's deputy chief of staff until December 2004.

"We hired these individuals for their expertise, nothing more nothing less," said Leigh Morris, an Ameren spokesman.

Curry also has been hired as a lobbyist by Midwest Generation, the state's top source of mercury pollution. The company's six Illinois coal plants--in Pilsen, Little Village, Joliet, Romeoville, Waukegan and Tazewell County--released 1,818 pounds of mercury during 2003, according to federal records.

Another Midwest Generation lobbyist is Doug Scofield, who is working for the power company and other clients while he is chief spokesman for Blagojevich's re-election campaign.

Scofield has acknowledged that he met with top Blagojevich aides on behalf of Midwest Generation just before the administration decided in October 2004 to abandon an aggressive campaign to force the state's coal plants to reduce mercury and other pollution.

At the time, the administration agreed with utilities that making state regulations stricter than federal rules would be "irresponsible."

After being spokesman for Blagojevich's 2002 campaign, Scofield briefly was deputy governor before leaving to open a communications and lobbying firm. His other clients include cable television companies and the Illinois Math and Science Academy.

Curry spent about two years as the governor's deputy chief of staff before leaving to join a lobbying firm called Illinois Strategies. Neither Scofield nor Curry returned telephone calls seeking comment.

Blagojevich has said he decided to push for state mercury rules after reading a recent Tribune series that explored the public health threats of mercury pollution.

Doug Scott, Cipriano's successor at the Illinois EPA, said he doesn't find anything unusual about Cipriano, Curry and Scofield lining up on the opposite side of an issue from the governor.

"These are all good people and we like them," Scott said. "They're in the private sector now and they're representing clients. There's nothing unusual about that."

----------

mhawthorne@tribune.com

[Perspective]

"The article points out that "dirty air is more dangerous than has been thought. Heavy metals and chemicals these factories put into the air -- such as chromium, lead, manganese and sulfuric acid -- have been linked to cancer, learning disabilities and other ailments.""

Here's the thing - if mercury was to be included in that particular sentence, then wouldn't justifying its presence in vaccines come up for debate (albeit not a presidential one ;)) by someone, somewhere? Why take that chance? Better to avoid any mention at all in the hope that no one would notice. Guess they didn't bank on a Dan Olmsted to point out the obvious - i.e., you think it is a frog and I think it is a horse!

http://co104w.col104.mail.live.com/mail/SafeRedirect.aspx?hm__tg=http://65.55.33.151/att/GetAttachment.aspx&hm__qs=file%3dbeee6a89-a0c0-42c2-adb5-1906c823360a%26ct%3daW1hZ2UvZ2lm%26name%3dQVRUMDAwMDE_3d%26inline%3d1%26rfc%3d0%26empty%3dFalse%26imgsrc%3dcid%253a178754693000000%2540web55411.mail.re4.yahoo.com&oneredir=1&ip=10.12.134.8&d=d4738&mf=128

[Matt Flynn]

Go to www.scorecard.org to see the largest poluters in your area.

[Twyla]

Thanks for this excellent article -- how strange and distressing.

And thanks, Kim, for another excellent photo! I don't know where you find them all!

[Gayle]

We are in a mercury pollution crisis everywhere in this world. In China, they are opening a new coal fired power plant every week. Both of our presidential candidates mention how they are going to use "CLEAN coal" as a way to help our environment. Talk about an oxymoron! Are they planning to insist that all of these coal burning facilities use proper filtering technology, or not do anything at all to control mercury emissions? The joke is on all of us, and there is nothing funny about it. We should all get urinary porphyrin tests done on ourselves and send them in a package to our congressmen/women and senators. My kids tests would fit the bill for mercury poisoning; One of my daughter's porphyrins is literally (not figuratively) off the chart and it indicates "remarkable mercury toxic effect."

[CM]

So,

"mercury builds up in the environment and is so toxic that even tiny drops can threaten fish and people."

and yet doctors tell us that somehow injecting large amounts of mercury directly into a baby is safe?
Ridiculous, and yet they laugh at us???

The chromium and lead that the article did mention and the mercury that it did not mention are all metalloestrogens. Here's the wikipedia definition:
"Metalloestrogens are a class of inorganic xenoestrogens which can affect the gene expression of human cells responding to estrogen. Effects are related to the physiologic function of estrogen because metalloestrogens have shown affinity for estrogen receptors. Because they can mimic estrogen thus activating the receptor, they are considered harmful and potentially linked with breast cancer.[1] List of metalloestrogens include aluminium, antimony, arsenite, barium, cadmium, chromium (Cr(II)), cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, selenite, tin and vanadate." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalloestrogen

Two of those metals that are "potentially linked with breast cancer", aluminum and mercury, are a component in many vaccines. That leaves me to wonder if it's possible for vaccines to have contributed in some way to the severly high number of breast cancer cases in young women. (I haven't seen any studies proving this yet, but maybe someone should look into it. The cause could be more directly related to environmental pollution, but many of the young women with breast cancer today would have been vaccinated.)

Here's one study that indirectly links a vaccine to cancer, but not because of toxic ingredients. It's by the Harvard Cancer Center, and found that women who had a history of mumps parotitis had a lower risk of developing ovarian cancer. http://www.dfhcc.harvard.edu/news/announcements/article/283/184/
So by trying to prevent mumps with a vaccine, doctors are actually increasing the risk of women developing ovarian cancer. Why are they still vaccinating all children against mumps. From what I've read, mumps is only dangerous for teenage boys, so why not only give this vaccine to pre-teen boys who do not have antibodies against the disease? Doctor's aren't supposed to give antibiotics to everyone all the time, they're only supposed to prescribe them when clearly needed. I wish vaccines followed that same rule.

[Sue]

Dan, you hit the nail on the head. Mercury is the elephant in the room. Incidental reductions of mercury pollution due to the attention to reducing global greenhouse gases may help some--but we need everyone to realize that mercury pollution, and mercury exposures of ALL kinds, is a huge problem that is affecting all of us and all of nature. I often wonder if the crazy way our world is going might not be due to the effects of mercury on everyone's ability to think clearly. Andy Cutler says one of the hallmarks of mercury toxicity is, "disordered thinking."

Sue

[AnneS]

Our government needs a makeover too. How can they continue to let companies rule/profit at the expense of the people?
Our families pay the price - sicker and sicker every year.

[Tanners Dad]

Go Dan Go... We all need to get out our soap boxes and scream. I feel the time is ripe to take back the world for our kids. We are just scratching the surface in explaining and pointing out the obvious elephant in the room. The 26 paragraph paper by the gentleman from India points out the exporting of mercury in vaccines is doing overseas. We must unite as a community and take back land, air, seas, and our bodies from these polutants.

http://www.causecast.org/member/tanners-dad