Diagnosis Mercury: Money, Politics and Poison

Diagnosis Mercury: Money, Politics and Poison is a 2008 book by Jane Hightower. The book explains that mercury is a poison and that the majority of mercury in the environment comes from coal-fired power plants. But the book is mainly concerned with human exposure from the eating of large predatory fish such as swordfish, shark, king mackerel, large tuna, etc.^[1] The book also discusses industrial mercury poisonings, such as those in Minamata, Japan, in the 1950s and Ontario, Canada, in the 1970s.^[2][3]

Summary

One morning in 2000, Dr. Jane Hightower walked into her exam room to find a patient with disturbing symptoms she couldn’t explain. The woman was nauseated, tired, and had difficulty concentrating, but a litany of tests revealed no apparent cause. She was not alone. Dr. Hightower saw numerous patients with similar, inexplicable ailments, and eventually learned that there were many more around the nation and the world. They had little in common—except a healthy appetite for certain fish.

Dr. Hightower’s quest for answers led her to mercury, a poison that has been plaguing victims for centuries and is now showing up in seafood. But this “explanation” opened a Pandora’s Box of thornier questions. Why did some fish from supermarkets and restaurants contain such high levels of a powerful poison? Why did the FDA base its recommendations for “safe” mercury consumption on data supplied by Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist extremists? And why wasn’t the government warning its citizens?

In Diagnosis: Mercury, Dr. Hightower retraces her investigation into the modern prevalence of mercury poisoning, revealing how political calculations, dubious studies, and industry lobbyists endanger our health. While mercury is a naturally occurring element, she learns there’s much that is unnatural about this poison’s prevalence in our seafood. Mercury is pumped into the air by coal-fired power plants and settles in our rivers and oceans, and has been dumped into our waterways by industry. It accumulates in the fish we eat, and ultimately in our own bodies. Yet government agencies and lawmakers have been slow to regulate pollution or even alert consumers.

Why? The trail of evidence leads to Canada, Japan, Iraq, and various U.S. institutions, and as Dr. Hightower puts the pieces together, she discovers questionable connections between ostensibly objective researchers and industries that fear regulation and bad press. Her tenacious inquiry sheds light on a system in which, too often, money trumps good science and responsible government. Exposing a threat that few recognize but that touches many, Diagnosis: Mercury should be required reading for everyone who cares about their health.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: The Discovery
• Chapter 2: Finding My Way
• Chapter 3: The Media Meets the Victims
• Chapter 4: Spreading the News
• Chapter 5: A Spoonful of Mercury
• Chapter 6: Making Money with a Menace
• Chapter 7: The Summit
• Chapter 8: Feeling the Heat in Mercury Politics
• Chapter 9: The Canadian Mercury Scare
• Chapter 10: Dr. Sa’adoun al-Tikriti
• Chapter 11: Fishy Loaves
• Chapter 12: Fishing with the FDA for Evidence in Iraq
• Chapter 13: Fishing with the Industry for Evidence in Iraq
• Chapter 14: From American Samoa to Peru
• Chapter 15: The Political Realm of Seychelles versus Faroes
• Chapter 16: The Mercury Study Report
• Chapter 17: Strategic Errors and Redundant Tactics
• Chapter 18: The Canning of Proposition 65 Mercury Warnings
• Chapter 19: Diagnosis Mercury

See also

• Mercury in fish

References

1. ^ Jane Hightower (2008). Diagnosis Mercury: Money, Politics and Poison. Island Press. p. 250. ISBN 9781597264501. OCLC 318428214. 
2. ^ Review: Diagnosis: Mercury by Jane Hightower
3. ^ Diagnosis Mercury: Money, Politics and Poison by Jane M. Hightower

External links

• Diagnosis: Mercury
• Mercury poisoning symptoms and fish recommendations
• Mercury poisoning time line
• Mercury guidelines
• Author Bio at California Pacific Medical Center
• Mercury Facts