New Evidence Links Mercury Emissions to Rates of Autism

Mercury is bad news, what more do I need to say? In the natural world, exposure to mercury was limited to things like emissions from exploding volcanoes. Now our body burden is enormous from so many sources--including the fillings in your mouth. The autism rate used to be 1 in 10,000 not so long ago, now it's 1 in 150 or even more.

P.S. forget about those compact flourescent lights--they have mercury! When you break 'em you'll be sorry. Get LEDs instead por favor!
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(NaturalNews) Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) say that "for the first time in scientific literature, a statistically significant association between autism risk and distance from the mercury source" has been established.

Lead researcher Raymond F. Palmer PhD says, "This is not a definitive study, but just one more that furthers the association between environment mercury and autism". The study, Proximity to point sources of environmental mercury release as a predictor of autism prevalence appears in the journal Health & Place (2008).

"We suspect low-dose exposures to various environmental toxicants, including mercury, that occur during critical windows of neural development among genetically susceptible children may increase the risk for developmental disorders such as autism".

Mercury sources evaluated in the UTHSC study included "coal-fired utility plants (33 percent of exposures), municipal/medical waste incinerators (29 percent) and commercial/industrial boilers (18 percent)". Concrete manufacturing was also listed as a source of mercury emissions.

Autism rates were gathered in 1,040 Texas school districts and distance from mercury sources were measured to a central point in the communities studied.

Researchers noted that children with autism not enrolled in the school districts studied were not included in the data. Therefore autism rates presented in this study may be somewhat under-reported.

Key findings from the UTHSC study news release

* For every 1,000 pounds of mercury released by all industrial sources in Texas into the environment in 1998, there was a corresponding 2.6 percent increase in autism rates in the Texas school districts in 2002.

* For every 1,000 pounds of mercury released by Texas power plants in 1998, there was a corresponding 3.7 percent increase in autism rates in Texas school districts in 2002.

* Autism prevalence diminished 1 percent to 2 percent for every 10 miles from the source.

Adding up the mercury body burden

Considering other sources of mercury exposure, from fish consumption, mercury amalgams and mercury preserved vaccinations along with the data from this revealing study, it isn't hard to see that the total body burden of mercury to pregnant and nursing mothers and young children is increasing at a potentially dangerous rate.

read more here.