Mercury Damage to Babies Said Costs $8.7B

[Guest guest]

SSRI-Research@

Mon, 28 Feb 2005 20:14:56 -0500

[sSRI-Research] Mercury Damage to Babies Said Costs $8.7B

 

 

 

 

 

[......mercury damage to babies costs the United States $8.7 billion a

year in lost earnings potential,....and what about the lose of quality

of life for these children ???? And what about vaccines??? Maybe those

that endanger children with their mercury products or bi products

should be exposed some way to heavy doses of mercury from their own

output and we can then compute and compare the costs to that.]

 

 

 

Mercury Damage to Babies Said Costs $8.7B

 

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & cid=534 & e=2 & u=/ap/20050228/ap_on_he_\

me/iq_loss_pollution

 

Mon Feb 28, 4:56 PM

 

 

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer

 

WASHINGTON - Lower IQ levels linked to mercury exposure in the womb

costs the United States $8.7 billion a year in lost earnings

potential, according to a study released Monday by researchers at a

New York hospital.

 

The Mount Sinai Center for Children's Health and the Environment

combined a number of previous studies to determine hundreds of

thousands of babies are born every year with lower IQ associated with

mercury exposure.

 

 

Using work examining the effects of lead exposure on IQ, researchers

determined that even a 1.6 point drop in IQ could cost a person

$31,800 in lifetime earnings because of missed educational

opportunities or jobs.

 

 

Peter McCaffery, a scientist at the University of Massachusetts

Medical School who studies the brain, said the Mount Sinai researchers

did a reasonable job piecing together a wide range of possible

reactions to mercury exposure.

 

 

" Some people are not going to be affected by mercury, and some people

are, just based on their genetic disposition, " McCaffery said.

 

 

The journal Environmental Health Perspectives published the Mount

Sinai study.

 

 

The findings are derived in part from statistics from the Centers for

Disease Control, which studied the frequency of high mercury levels in

women of childbearing age.

 

 

The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) has warned that

high levels of mercury in albacore tuna and some other fish can pose a

hazard for pregnant women. The Environmental Protection Agency (news -

web sites) estimates that about 8 percent of American women of

childbearing age have enough mercury in their blood to put a fetus at

risk. [AND HOW ABOUT THE MERCURY IN VACCINES CREATED BY ELI LILLY????]

 

 

Mount Sinai pediatrician and lead researcher Leonardo Trasande

estimated that between 316,588 and 637,233 children are born each year

with umbilical cord blood mercury levels linked to IQ loss.

 

 

The research found the IQ losses linked to mercury range from

one-fifth of an IQ point to as much as 24 points.

 

 

As an example, Trasande said about 4 percent of babies, or about

180,000, are born each year with blood mercury levels between 7.13 and

15 micrograms per liter. That level of mercury, the group concluded,

causes a loss of 1.6 IQ points.

 

 

Mercury levels, Trasande said, are probably lower generally than they

were in years before limits were placed on emissions from medical

waste and municipal incinerators.

 

 

" We've made great progress in reducing mercury emissions over the past

decade, and this is likely to have reduced the number of affected

children and to have reduced costs by a similar amount, " Trasande said.

 

 

Leonard Levin, a scientist at the Electric Power Research Institute,

said no group has yet to produce solid data defining the impact of

mercury on intelligence.

 

 

Mount Sinai released its findings in hopes of influencing the debate

over legislation before Congress, known as Clear Skies, that would

change how the government regulates emissions from power plants and

other sources.

 

 

The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences, and with financial support from the

Jennifer Altman Foundation, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and

the Rena Shulsky Foundation.

 

 

___

 

 

 

 

 

On the Net:

 

Environmental Health Perspectives: http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/

 

Mount Sinai Center for Children's Health and the Environment:

http://www.childenvironment.org/

 

Electric Power Research Institute: http://www.epri.com/