Mercury Exposure and Child Development Outcomes

The Scientific Paper:

P. W. Davidson, G. J. Meyers, and B. Weiss. Pediatrics. 113 (4 suppl) pp. 1023-1029. 2004.

Review This Scientific Paper’s Abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=
15060195&dopt=Citation

The Purpose of this Study:

• This article reviews what science knows about the bad affects of the chemical pollutant methylmercury on the human nervous system and mental development.
• These scientists focus this paper on the debate about methylmercury:
  1. Looking at the additional scientific research they believe needs to be done; and
  2. Defining the big issues these scientists believe that public policy makers now face.

Some Background, Methods, Results, Caveats, and Other Select Points:

• This peer-reviewed, scientific paper was published in 2004.
  
• Mercury is everywhere in the human environment.
  
• Everyone is exposed to mercury.
  
• Some forms of mercury (methylmercury) are especially bad for the human nervous system and mental development.
  
• High levels of mercury in people cause visible signs of poisoning.
  
• Most people experience only low-to-moderate levels of mercury exposure.
  
• Many scientists disagree about how to interpret the available, limited, scientific study results about the bad affects of low methylmercury levels in people.
  
• The American public is very concerned about a link between human mercury exposure and possible bad affects on human mental development. This increased concern may be caused by the limited, sufficient, - and at the same time consistent - scientific information available about mercury exposure and its possible bad affects on human mental development.

  Or, the public is very concerned despite the limited information about the possible bad affects of mercury on people.

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a methylmercury oral reference dose (RfD) - an estimate of a daily amount of methylmercury that a person can ingest that is likely not to cause any bad effects to that person over that person’s lifetime. This EPA methylmercury oral reference dose is a lot lower than the earlier mercury health guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, which is also part of DHHS). Methylmercury is one form of mercury that causes many bad health affects in people.

• Some-to-many of the questions about the EPA’s methylmercury oral reference dose remain unanswered.

• Some consumer groups have raised questions about possible links between mercury exposure and autism in children - plus other bad mental development outcomes in people exposed to mercury. This resulting confusion about mercury has caused some parents to seek regulatory, legal, or medical remedies because there is no available, good, decisive, scientific evidence about how mercury causes bad affects in people.

A Bottom Line:
Human mercury exposure with its possible bad affects on mental and nervous system development remain unanswered questions in need of more scientific research. The answers from this new scientific research will be the basis for better federal, public health policies.

Find This Scientific Paper for Your Review:
Mercury Exposure and Child Development Outcomes. Pediatrics. 113 (4 suppl) pp 1023 - 1029. 2004.