Heavy Metals, Flashy Risk

Ready for some scary news? The Center for Environmental Health has detected high levels of lead in women’s handbags and wallets, with some bags testing up to 100 times higher than the federal limit for lead in children’s products. In children’s jewelry made in China, Associated Press investigators found troubling quantities of cadmium. And a permit writer for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality discovered that a local cement plant reported emitting just 631 pounds of mercury annually when in fact its emissions were about 2,500 pounds per year.
Researchers at Yale University have linked lead and high blood pressure; mercury is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Hal Huggins and Dr. Robert Kulacz are among those studying the dangers associated with the use of heavy metals in dentistry.
Body burden testing by the CDC and cord blood testing by Johns Hopkins University both reveal that exposure to heavy metals (including lead, mercury and cadmium) is all too common among Americans. But heavy metal exposure can be treated if identified properly and early on. And so, for the past three decades, integrative physicians have routinely screened their patients for heavy metal exposure: for example, by analyzing hair samples. The case of Daniel Roehm, MD, targeted by the Florida Board of Medicine, ended in the board’s acknowledging that hair mineral analysis is an effective way to screen patients for heavy metal exposure. Nevertheless, state medical boards continue to harass physicians who conduct these tests.