To a certain extent the human body CAN and DOES flush out most things (like metals) that it does not require or want to keep. BUT we must keep in mind that although the human body does function (usually) like a well-oiled processing machine, it does not always function perfectly and sometimes traces get ‘stuck’ in the system.

Those stuck ‘traces of metals’ in the system may become a health hazard over time as their quantities increase with the body’s prolonged exposure to more metals.

Additionally, in the case of heavy metals like mercury, for example, scientists have determined that some metals form bonds with organic materials within the body and get absorbed into the body. Those compounds will not leave on their own and overtime may cause a problem as their concentrations in the body increase.

Heavy metals and the food chain?

Our planet has a hierarchical food chain. Everyone knows that. But, did you know that cases of ‘mild contamination’ by heavy metals or other potential toxins at one level of the food chain may have innumerable effects on all levels above it in the food chain?

Example: Fish in a river or lake become contaminated with mercury. We eat the fish. We become home to the mercury in the fish.

Easy to test for metals in water?

In some cases like mercury, arsenic, copper, iron, manganese, chromium, lead, and select others, simple at-home water test strips and water test kits exist.

Other metals, however, can only get detected using sophisticated laboratory equipment and techniques.

How certain government officials proposed to DEAL with the problem, however, DID shock us.

GRAND JUNCTION — A reservoir that provides drinking water for Grand Junction is closed for fishing because smallmouth bass there have tested positive for mercury contamination.

Steve Gunderson, director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s water- quality division, says the mercury levels in Juniata Reservoir are extremely low, but mercury accumulates in fish. He says state health officials are meeting with city officials about keeping the reservoir off a list of bodies of water that don’t meet water- quality standards, if they can get rid of all contaminated fish or isolate the reservoir. ( source )

Sounds to use like the officials seem more concerned about keeping this body of water off the ‘contaminated list’ than they do about the actual underlying problem: Mercury in the water!

Granted the article only gave a brief overview of the situation at Juniata Reservoir, but we really find it strange that the proposed method of ‘solving’ the problem involves removing (killing) all the smallmouth bass… and/or keeping those fish from migrating to another body of water.

No matter how you look at it, once again it seems that certain government bodies care more about regional revenue from tourism, revenue from sport fishing, and revenue in general than they do about finding the underlying cause of all the problems… and this means, to some extent, that the general public must keep a vigilant eye on issues involving contamination of lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, and any other bodies of water because government agencies have their own agendas which may or may not include keeping toxic materials out of the water.

Testing for Metals in Water

A quick and efficient way of testing for the presence of metals in your water involves the use of a water testing product such as the SenSafe Water Metals Check which provides users with semi-quantitative water metals levels in under three minutes.

SenSafe Water Metals Check requires no iodine indicator solution, no meter, and no specialized training. Just dip the strip for 20 seconds, wait two minutes, and match color on the end of the strip to the color chart provided on the bottle.

Metals detected by SenSafe Water Metals Check include, but are not limited to, copper, cobalt, zinc, cadmium, and nickel.

SenSafe Water Metals Check has a low detection limit of 10ppb (parts per billion), much lower than any comparable product on the market.

What About Testing for Mercury in Water?

Simple test kits exist for testing mercury levels in drinking water as well. SenSafe manufactures two different Mercury in Water Test Kits and both, like SenSafe Water Metals Check, require no meter or special training to use and yield results in a matter of minutes.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Scientists have detected mercury contamination in every one of hundreds of fish sampled from 291 freshwater streams, according to a U.S. government study released on Wednesday.

More than a quarter of those fish contained concentrations of mercury exceeding levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency for the protection of people who eat average amounts of fish, the U.S. Geological Survey report said.

More than two-thirds exceeded the EPA-set level of concern for fish-eating mammals. ( source )

You read that correctly. 100 PERCENT of the fish sampled from 291 freshwater streams in the United States tested positive for the presence of mercury and more then 66 percent of those fish contained quantities of mercury which exceed levels which may harm fish-eating mammals (beavers, otters, bears, etc.).

Oh, and a mere 25 percent of the fish contained mercury levels exceeding safety limits for humans who eat fich on a regular basis.

Where did the mercury come from?

Scientists believe coal burning power plants account for the greatest amount of mercury found in the United States waterways. Particles of mercury enter the atmosphere and fall back down towards the Earth. Some get blown great distances by wind and others enter the Earth’s system of waterways and travel wherever the currents want to take them.

Where were the highest mercury counts found?

Naturally people, and this includes people who eat fish AND people who don’t eat fish but still have general concerns about the quality of water in their surroundings, want the answer to that question, so…

Some of the highest levels of mercury in the latest study were found in the coastal “blackwater” streams of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana — relatively undeveloped areas marked by abundant pine forests and wooded wetlands.

USGS hydrologist Barbara Scudder said those characteristics somehow enhance the conversion of mercury from its inorganic form in the atmosphere to a more toxic organic form, methylmercury, which accounts for at least 95 percent of the mercury found in fish.

…

High concentrations also were found in some streams in the West fed by areas where mining had taken place, Scudder said. ( source )

Should people stop eating fish from US streams?

Some people think ‘panic’ when a toxicology study involving mercury, arsenic, lead or other heavy metals comes out and delivers bad news. According to scientists, the closer to the higher end of the food chain in those streams, the greater the amount of mercury one can expect to find in the fish.

As with many pollutants, mercury concentrates as it moves up the food chain, from algae, to insects to small fish and larger predators. The main source of mercury poisoning in humans is from eating fish and shellfish.

Scudder said researchers typically sampled about five fish from each of the 291 streams surveyed. They focused on bigger species such as largemouth bass because they are at the top of the in-stream food chain.

She suggested that people concerned about mercury contamination in stream-caught fish should eat more of the smaller pan species, such as perch, bluegill or crappie. ( source )

While the advice of ‘eating smaller fish’ probably does not instill conficence in most people reading this, at least they didn’t tell us to become vegetarians… OR DIE!

So if there’s mercury in the fish, does that mean there’s mercury in the water, too?

Good question! We noticed that the article mentioned mercury in the air and mercury getting into the fish via runoff tainted with mercury particulates… so we would guess that in some areas a person could expect to find mercury in the water as well.

Can the average person test for mercury in water?

While nothing takes the place of professional water analysis conducted by a certified water testing laboratory, the average person can actually test for the presence of dissolved mercury as well as other heavy metals in water:

Testing for Arsenic in Water

Testing for Chromium in Water

Testing for Copper in Water

Testing for Iron in Water

Testing for Lead in Water

Testing for Manganese in Water

Testing for Mercury in Water

For cases where people fear that larger scale mercury contamination may have taken place, a product named Mercury Check with a detection range of 50ppm to 1,000ppm may come in handy.

KERENGPANGI, INDONESIA — A gold miner stands waist-deep in a polluted pond, dumps a capful of mercury into a bucket of ore and mixes it in with his bare hands.

The darting liquid metal wraps itself around the gold to form a silver pellet the size of a marble.

The use of mercury in gold mining is illegal in Indonesia because the metal is toxic to humans and the environment. But the price of gold has tripled since 2001, and mercury is the easiest way to extract it.

“Of course I’m worried,” said miner Handoko, 23, a grim man in a baseball hat who goes by one name. “But this is the job.”

Tens of thousands of remote mining sites have sprung up mostly in Asia, Latin America and Africa, using as much as 1,000 tons of mercury each year. The mercury ravages the nervous system of miners and their families. It also travels thousands of miles in the atmosphere, settling in oceans and riverbeds in Europe and North America and contaminating fish.

Small-scale gold mining is the second-worst source of mercury pollution in the world, after the burning of fossil fuels. And Indonesia ranks behind only China in the use of mercury in gold mining. (source)

Why should the rest of the world care about the use of mercury in gold mining operations on the other side of the planet? Simply put, anything placed (or carelessly dumped) in the environment can and WILL eventually wind up distributing itself all over the planet… and in this case that means the mercury from Indonesia will wind up in the air and drinking water all over the world eventually.

While all United States municipalities must carefully monitor the amount of mercury in the water they distribute, no one monitors the mercury content of the water pulled by private well owners — and that means no one really knows if the water contains mercury or not unless the private well owners test for mercury themselves.

Do simple test methods exist for testing mercury in water? Yes. Boris’ Mercury Test Kit tests down to the EPA limit of 0.002 ppm (or 2 parts per billion) and yields its results quickly.

For cases where people fear that larger scale mercury contamination may have taken place, a product named Mercury Check with a detection range of 50ppm to 1,000ppm may come in handy.