I Am Poisoned by Mercury: A True Life Story by Marc Choyt – Founder, FJA USA
Introduction: In the previous post, Mike Koostachin voiced his concern about mercury in the fish around De Beers’ Victor mine. The question of how much mercury is safe is something that I have personal experience with.
~ Marc Choyt, Fair Jewelry Action USA
In 1971, just eleven years old, I was rolling mercury across our desk, pushing this bizarre metallic blob back and forth with our fingers across a black linoleum lab table in science class. I knew of no apparent danger to this mysterious substance which even my trusted dentist used to fill my teeth.
These days, my brother who teaches high school science told me that if mercury were to get loose in his class, he would be required to call a hazardous material unit and the entire school would be shut down. But in my profession, the first association I have with mercury is its use as an amalgam for poorer artisan miners processing gold from raw ore—what many people call, “dirty gold.”
Mercury is the second most toxic heavy metal neurotoxin that occurs naturally in our environment—only plutonium is more dangerous. I knew intellectually from studies that even a small amount of exposure to the skin for these miners can have huge ramifications. Recently, however, learning about mercury poisoning has become even more experiential.
In late summer, I heard from a friend about a holistic medical doctor who relocated to my hometown of Santa Fe. It is not that I felt particularly at death’s door. Throughout my life I have kept fit. Just a few months ago I carried 90 pounds of elk off an 11,000 foot mountain during a winter camping hunt. But having just turned 50, my energy levels were not anywhere like what they were ten years ago—which I attributed, naturally, to my age.
Dr. Heilbron gave me a series of tests—actually, I had 38 vials of blood drawn at our local lab. Three weeks later, I learned that I had dangerously high levels of mercury. This was impacting my thyroid. My daily temperature was running under 96 degrees. My Cholesterol levels had shot up since the previous time I had checked. Over all, I was told, I was on at the beginning of serious decline that would land me in the prescription drug labyrinth. I wanted to start the removal of mercury from my system immediately, but that was out of the question. I had to strengthen my body before I would be strong enough to start the detoxification process.
The first thing I wondered was how I had ended up with such high mercury in my body. I have eaten a lot of fish over the course of my life, but at the top of the list for most people with excess mercury are dental fillings. Though none of my fillings since 1990 had mercury, I still had three other fillings left, some over forty years old. I could not even begin to take the mercury out of my system without first dealing with my own macro toxic waste dump that filled my teeth.
Some people are skeptical of the dangers of mercury fillings. If you are one of those, see this this Youtube video which shows how mercury fillings are constantly leaking toxic poison into your body all the time—1000 times higher than the EPA would allow in the air that we breathe. Mercury, amazingly enough, continues to be used to fill people’s teeth, making up 50% of fillings in about the 80% of dentists that continue to use it. Just getting these out my mouth felt great.
For the next two months, I was on massive doses of vitamins and non-prescription thyroid support supplements. Every two weeks, I would take my morning temperature upon waking. I began noticing it creep up, and as this happened I discovered what it felt like to be warm again. I had not noticed that my hands and feet were often cold. My unhealthy state had become the new normal. As my temperature rose to 97.7, I had energy levels I had forgotten were possible—such as steady productivity in the afternoons and even into the evenings. Plus, I just felt a lot better migrating from what felt like a reptilian body temperature to being a fully warm blooded mammal once again.
At that point, having had my thyroid kicked back into normal production, Dr. Heilbron put me on an intestinal cleanse, and then on to a supplement to pull the mercury out of my system. Four months into this process, I no longer take the thyroid supplements, as my body temperature is close to normal. I just take some daily vitamins. Though I have not been retested, my cholesterol levels have probably dropped down as well.
My exposure to mercury was minuscule compared to small scale miners who wash in mercury, as shown in this video by my colleague, Greg Valerio. Unfortunately, my levels of mercury poisoning are not unusual for the average person in the West. I am extremely careful about what I eat. I buy organic and local and hunt my own meat. Yet our environment has become massively toxic. According to my doctor, just about everyone he sees has some level of heavy metal toxicity. My wife had both lead and mercury.
Though I have only minimal experience in these matters, I suspect that heavy metal poisoning is at the root of many systemic health issues, such as low immune systems, low energy, etc, that are common in this day and age. Dealing with toxicity can result in remarkable improvement in your overall health levels. My advice to anyone reading this is first to get tested for heavy metals.
Yet that you, the reader, can even consider this option is indicative of a very privileged position. People who are exposed to mercury in mining have no resources that would allow detoxification. Instead, they suffer ill health and shortened lives. Not only that, but the entire ecosystem, including animals and plants, suffer from the exposure to mercury.
This is all the more reason that those of us who are involved in ethical gold sourcing cannot simply be satisfied with recycled gold. It is a good first step, but has no development benefit. For many poor miners around the world, mining gold is the only way for them to survive. They need to exploit the resources on their land. What we need to do is find ways to help these communities do so in a safe manner. Fortunately, we already have examples of how this can be done through the introduction of Fair Trade Gold, and the ongoing work of the Alliance for Responsible Mining.
Right now, Fair Trade Gold has just entered the UK market. As more projects with responsible, small scale mining become available, the most ethical practice for jewelers concerned about development and poverty among the small scale mining sector is to support this emerging supply chain in every way possible.
Please Note: FJA is an forum open to a diversity of opinions in support of its mission. Any editorial expressed in this article represents the opinion of the author, and not necessarily the views of Fair Jewelry Action members.
