3/11/2024 0 Comments Is mercury poisoning permanent![]() Urine tests on one of her children found that they now had elevated levels of mercury in their body, albeit much lower than their mother at 6.88 micrograms/liter. Levels of up to 300 mg/m3 were found in the washing machine, where mercury likely accumulated as clothes worn by the mother were laundered, in turn contaminating other clothing and materials that go into the machine But the children's bedrooms recorded levels of up to 400 ng/m3 and their towels read up to 600 mg/m3, according to the case report. New urine tests confirmed that the mercury level in her body had risen to 46.6 micrograms/liter - more than nine times the level considered normal (5 micrograms/liter) - and certain areas in her home now also contained elevated levels of mercury, putting her family at risk.īackground mercury levels below 200 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3) are not considered a concern, Gilkeson explained. "There are limited outlets for availability, and we have no reason or evidence to believe there would be any difference in the products," said John Gilkeson, Toxics Reduction Specialist at the MPCA, who tested the woman's home and has conducted three visits to the homes of people using skin whitening creams in recent years. The products found in her home were empty from use, but the MPCA team tested new unopened versions of the same product, finding extremely high levels of mercury of 11,000 and 18,000ppm. The agency found the amount of mercury in two of those products to be several thousand times higher than the permitted levels of 1 part per million (ppm) in cosmetics and urine tests revealed high levels of mercury in her body (23mcg/liter) - but mercury was not noted as an ingredient on the products, according to the team.Īt that time, the agency did not consider the levels of mercury in her home to be a concern, but over the course of a year, the mother had increasingly elevated levels of mercury in her body, the case report states.Ī second home visit in 2022 found that two new beauty products the woman had bought at a local market, one of which was not labelled as skin whitening but is known to be used for this, also contained high levels of mercury. ![]() ![]() On the first visit she showed the team skin whitening beauty creams from abroad but said she was no longer using them. The toxicologist added that there are likely to be many more people out there who are being exposed to toxic levels of mercury and are not showing symptoms, or at least not yet.įollowing the referral, Batdorff and the MPCA visited the woman's house twice, about a year apart. "So being a young woman that now has vision loss is really frightening and pretty concerning." "She will not recover her vision," Batdorff told CNN. She described the woman's loss of vision as "a more extreme and permanent symptom." Clinical tests revealed elevated levels of mercury in her blood and urine.īatdorff explained that the most common symptoms she sees from potential mercury poisoning is tingling or numbness in a patient's hands or feet. The woman, whose name has been concealed in the report to protect her identity, was referred to Batdorff's team after she reported an array of symptoms to multiple doctors, ranging from insomnia and leg pain to muscle weakness, fatigue and, eventually, the loss of her peripheral vision. There's no way to know whether is in the creams or not because it's not on the labels." But it's out there and you can't see it, you can't smell it. "No one intentionally wants to hurt themselves or their family members. "People have no idea," Batdorff, a fellow in medical toxicology who examined the woman in her home, told CNN. ![]() Erin Batdorff with the Minnesota Poison Control System, details the extensive symptoms experienced by the woman, also a mother, and how home visits conducted by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) found high levels of mercury in her children's bedrooms, bedding, household towels and laundry area. MINNESOTA - A woman in Minnesota lost part of her vision and inadvertently put her entire household at risk of mercury poisoning, most likely from using beauty creams containing high levels of the toxic chemical, according to a case report shared exclusively with CNN. ![]()
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