Heavy metals ... consequences
by * Dr UME
In the Geneva Convention, the protocol concerning heavy metals indicates by the term " heavy metals " metals which have a density superior to 4,5 g/cm3.
The expression " toxic metals " agrees better than that used usually by " heavy metals ".
It includes all metals and metalloids having a toxicity for human health and the environment: lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), ...
The heavy metals most often considered poisonous to humans are lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium. Others such as copper, zinc, chromium, however, necessary to the body in small quantities, can become toxic at higher doses.
Air emission by combustion of vegetals, petroleum, extraction of ores, industrial processes, incinerators - Elimination of the mining and industrial waste - food-processing industry (long-term use of certain chemical compounds for plants protection led to the increase the quantities of copper, mercury, cadmium and lead in grounds, contaminating then food).
They generally occur at particle level (except mercury which is mainly gaseous).
The water and the air can be considered as renewable sources, but in grounds the effect of human activities is more persistent and often irreversible.
THE FATE OF HEAVY METALS summary
It depends on many factors among which the nature of the ground and its acidity.
In acid soils and low in humus, of low mechanical composition, heavy metals do not accumulate. They are transferred to the groundwater and rivers and / or absorbed by plants and then present a risk to health.
The basic soils rich in humus trap heavy metals, so there is no immediate risk to health. But the ground is durably contaminated and the concentration in heavy metals increases with years. These are likely may be released again when the environment is modified (acidification of the soil under the effect of changes in temperature, humidity, etc..) and thus constitute a real time bomb.
Once released into the environment, these metals can persist for years, increasing the likelihood of human poisoning.
We find them mainly in industrial and municipal waste water (Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn), atmospheric precipitations, and waters resulting from the agricultural activity (Hg, Cu, Pb). Food, vegetables, cereals, fruits, fishes can be contaminated by accumulation of the toxic from the ground or from the water.
Certain lichens or mosses are usually used to watch metals in the environment and serve as " bio-indicators ".
Heavy metals can also penetrate into our environment through natural processes. For example geological deposits of arsenic contaminating groundwaters and found himself at subtoxic doses in our drinking water.
The metals in water and terrestrial environment are necessary elements for the normal functioning of plants and animals. They play an important role in the transformation of matter, mainly in enzymatic mechanisms. A low concentration of these elements in the environment (TRACE ELEMENTS) has generally a positive effect and stimulates the activity of living organisms.
EXPOSURE MODES summary
THE HUMANS ARE EXPOSED by inhalation of air pollutants, the consumption of contaminated water, exposure to contaminated soil from industrial waste. They accumulate in living organisms and disrupt the balance and biological mechanisms, causing toxic effects in short and/or long term. They can affect the nervous system, kidney function, hepatic, respiratory,...
The effects caused by these pollutants are varied and depend also on the chemical state under which they occur (metal, oxide, salt, organometallic).
THEY CAN CAUSE SERIOUS PROBLEMS like in a not exhaustive way, delay of growth, development or behavior disorders, the disturbances of the bioregulating systems responsible for functional or psychosomatic labelled disorders (chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia) neuro-degenerative problems (Parkinson, Alzheimer) and finally organic lesions and cancerous disease.
Poisoning by some metals such as mercury and lead can also cause autoimmune phenomena, in which the patient's immune system attacks its own cells.
This can lead to articular affections, such as rheumatoid arthritis, renal problems, circulatory and nervous problems.
More specifically :
Cadmium : renal lesions, lung, osseous, prostate cancer
Tin : Cerebral edema, Pneumoconiosis
Manganese : Lung lesions, Neurotoxicity
Nickel : Carcinogen (nose, lung)
Vanadium : irritating eyes, nose and bronchi
Mercury : Neurological lesions, Renal insufficiency
METALS ARE ESPECIALLY TOXIC FOR THE FOETUS, THE INFANT AND YOUNG CHILD. summary
Some metals, like Hg and Pb can easily cross the placenta and damage the fetal brain.
In children, the load of mercury given since the birth is more and more important for several reasons.
First, Hg is ubiquitous in nature and then the load made by vaccines far exceeds the recommended doses (each vaccine contains from 12.5 to 25 µg of thimoresal and the child can get a load of 237 µg when he had all his vaccinations at the age of 5 years (1) ).
Dental amalgam in pregnant women give off mercury vapor which can cross the placenta barrier and poison the fetus. Furthermore, mercury can be found in breast milk.
While it is true that children should be breastfeed, do it with milk containing mercury is not necessarily the best thing.
Children are exposed to higher food doses according to their weight, than adult.
Exposure to toxic metals in young children, besides the neuro-muscular degenerative diseases, can lead to educational underachievement and behavioral problems such as aggressiveness or hyperactivity, sometimes autism.
THE DOSE DOES NOT MAKE ANY MORE THE POISON... summary
The Framework Directive n°96/62/CE of September 27th, 1996 relative to the evaluation and the management of the ambient air quality recommend to watch many indicators of the atmospheric pollution besides the lead. These other metals are: arsenic, cadmium, nickel and mercury.
The European Directive n°99/30/CE of April 22nd, 1999 sets a limit for lead at 0.5 μg/m3 on average over 1 year. Teneur Pb max. content tolerated is 50 μg/l in water for consumption. OMS recommends 10 μg/l.
And yet, in France, 200,000 children are exposed at the risk of lead poisoning linked to the dilapidated housing, among which 60 000 approximately would be poisoned (Ministry of Health).
Among 13,400 children poisoned, 32% had lead levels above 100 μg per liter of blood and 5% more than 250 μg (from AFP Sciences n° 1111, of December 4, 1997).
A daughter directive set the limit values for other toxic metals (arsenic, cadmium, mercury and nickel) is being elaborated.
The toxicity of heavy metals led public authorities to regulate emissions by fixing limit contents.
This regulation, is however of no help to determine without ambiguity a list of metals to watch because the list varies according to the considered middles : atmospheric emissions, water discharges, rules on land application of sludge or landfill, etc.
The quarter of the contamination by heavy metals is due to household waste (cadmium batteries, lead acid batteries, copper and zinc, pesticides, etc.).
IN CASE OF CHRONIC INTOXICATION OF HEAVY METALS...summary
The notion of standards and dose below which the substance is considered safe (NOEL concept) and its extrapolation to humans, imposed as scientific data is very often in environmental human medicine, inadequate and even erroneous.
The effects on the psychoneuroendocrine and immune system, even carcinogenic, at medium and long term, are often unsung and even rejected.
It is increasingly evident, that in vivo, on an organism taken as a whole, a pollutant never acts alone and it is essential to consider possible synergies between various pollutants (Ex. Hg and electromagnetic fields)
It will also be necessary to take into account possibilities of detoxication of the body and phenomena of individual genetic sensibility.
USEFUL TEST... summary
We must therefore develop an innovative battery of tests, exploring the more specific individual response of the organism to the presence of low doses of these metals than the toxicity lesion, immediately detectable by conventional testing, at stage so often late and irreversible.
Among these immunological and genetic tests :
- Genetic analysis of enzyme polymorphism
- Flow cytometry and lymphocyte activation
- MELISA
- Genetic tests of mutagenesis : micro-nuclei and comets test
In environmental medicine, a deeper understanding of health problems related to heavy metals will lead automatically to preventive conduct and to therapeutic methods more effective and responsive.
At first delete the source (in case of removal of amalgam, particular precautions), then, strategy with three objectives :
1. Detoxify
...Sites of fixation (metalloenzymes, cell membranes, DNA,...) by TMD Toxic Metal Detox which allows a real detoxication on all toxic metals, without side effects, without contraindication and without alteration the mineral capital of the patient
2. Eliminate
... by drainage of emunctories (otherwise redeposition and sometimes more serious secondary lesions) with FYTOBIL 2 capsules per day and ...
3. Regenerate
... normal physiological functions by...
- Correction of the flora with Proflore
- Hyperpermeability and intestinal malabsorption with Nutracare
- intake of trace elementary with VB COMPLEX M, AC500+ and ZINCAMIN
(1) Note that vaccines are now available without Hg
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