On Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:26:28 -0800, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

On 1/27/2011 8:50 PM Jeff Liebermann spake thus:

As usual, much of what we know about mercury is alarmist and wrong:
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf
"Therefore, if all 272 million CFLs3 sold in 2009 were sent
to a landfill (versus recycled, as a worst case) – they
would add 0.12 metric tons, or 0.12 percent, to U.S. mercury
emissions caused by humans."

That's interesting. Of course, it tells us *nothing* about how alarmist
and wrong what we "know" about mercury is; all it tells us is that the
amount of mercury in CFLs is much smaller than the total amount of
mercury let loose by human beans. Says nothing about mercury's toxicity.

The alarmist part is in the safe handling of broken CFL lamps and the
relative levels of mercury in the environment produced by breaking CFL
lamps verus electric power generation.

(I guess I have an average mercury "body burden" since I have amalgam
fillings.

Run a urine Porphyrin Profile test for mercury and see if you're
polluted or contaminated. It tests for organic methyl mercury
poisoning. There's also a stool test and a hair test. About $100. Be
sure to test for other heavy metals.

But I still can't for the life of me figure out just how it's
OK to walk around with mercury in my TEETH just because it's been mixed
with other metals. It's not even an *alloy*, for chrissakes. How does
that work?)

If your fillings were disappearing, you might be worried. I had some
dentistry done about 4 months ago. My wallet hurt more than my mouth.
The amalgum fillings were still all there, but the teeth rotted out
under them. So, we removed the amalgum fillings and replaced them
with UV cured cement. Cool stuff, looks good, and non-toxic, but no
improvement in overall health so far.

The danger is when the mercury binds with H2S gas produced in the
stomach and produces methyl mercury CH3-Hg-CH3 which is absorbed that
by various organs and produces assorted medical problems. There are
other mechanisms, such as eating methyl mercury in contaminated fish.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558