How long does mercury stay in the body?
Once in your body, metallic mercury can stay for weeks or months. When metallic mercury enters the brain, it is readily converted to an inorganic form and is “trapped” in the brain for a long time.
A blood test indicates whether you've been exposed to mercury in the last few days. However, blood levels of certain types of mercury decrease rapidly within three to five days. Urine test. Over a period of several months, the level of mercury in the urine also decreases.
The traditional treatment for mercury poisoning is to stop all exposures. In many cases, chelation therapy is also used. This involves giving a medication (the chelator) which goes into the body and grabs the metal (chelos is the Greek word for claw) then carries the metal out of the body, usually into the urine.
There is no standard cure for mercury poisoning, so it is best to avoid exposure to high amounts of mercury when possible. Eliminating risk factors by making changes in the diet and work or living environment may help reduce the levels of mercury in the body.
The biological half-life of mercury is estimated to be approximately 30 to 60 days in the body [4]. The half-life of mercury in the brain is not entirely clear, but is estimated to be as long as approximately 20 years.
There's no cure for mercury poisoning. The best way to treat mercury poisoning is to stop your exposure to the metal. If you eat a lot of mercury-containing seafood, stop immediately.
- tremors.
- headaches.
- difficulty sleeping.
- impaired sensations.
- muscle weakness and twitching.
- emotional changes (mood swings, irritability, nervousness)
- kidney damage.
- breathing difficulties.
- Swordfish. A predatory fish that inhabits several ocean zones, swordfish is one of the highest sources of mercury. ...
- Shark. ...
- Tilefish. ...
- King Mackerel. ...
- Bigeye Tuna. ...
- Marlin. ...
- Orange Roughy. ...
- Chilean Sea Bass.
The most commonly accepted methods of assessing mercury exposure are to test urine or blood. Both tests usually measure levels of total mercury (elemental, inorganic and organic). Elevated mercury in urine usually indicates exposure to an elemental or inorganic source of mercury, such as from a job that uses mercury.
Mercury is stored in the body in the kidneys, blood, spleen, brain, liver, bones, and fatty tissues. Mental health issues such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are on the rise due to the brain's exposure to greater amounts of toxic heavy metals such as mercury.
What does mercury do to the brain?
Many studies show that high exposure to mercury induces changes in the central nervous system, potentially resulting in irritability, fatigue, behavioral changes, tremors, headaches, hearing and cognitive loss, dysarthria, incoordination, hallucinations, and death.
High exposure to inorganic mercury may result in damage to the gastrointestinal tract, the nervous system, and the kidneys.

Sprinkle sulfur powder over the contaminated area and rub it gently all over the surface and into the cracks with a paper towel. Sulfur powder binds with mercury. Use a paper towel dampened with water followed by wiping with another damp paper towel to clean up the sulfur and mercury.
For methylmercury, the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has estimated a safe daily intake level of 0.1 µg/kg body weight per day.
The average mercury content in whole eggs ranged from 0.312 to 0.375 µg Hg/egg, and was not significantly different among the tested groups. The Hg content in various egg components (albumen, yolk, eggshell) of the treatment groups during six weeks of the experiment (series II-V) is presented in Table 3.
A study by the Mercury Policy Project found a wide range of mercury levels in both light and white tuna from government-sponsored school lunch programs. Some of the canned albacore/white tuna tested had mercury levels almost four times the average level reported by the Food and Drug Administration.
As part of its ongoing environmental efforts, Apple eliminated the use of mercury in its products in 2009.
DO: -Maintain a diet high in protein -Eat plenty of fresh vegetables -Take in plenty of water -Take unprocessed pure oils including flax oil, sunflower oil and sesame oil -Take healthy, natural fats including seeds, nuts, avocado and free range poultry and eggs.
Symptoms include tremors, insomnia, memory loss, neuromuscular effects, headaches and cognitive and motor dysfunction. Mild, subclinical signs of central nervous system toxicity can be seen in workers exposed to an elemental mercury level in the air of 20 μg/m3 or more for several years.
Soil contaminated by mercury or the redistribution of contaminated water has the potential to enter the food chain through plant and livestock [3,4,5]. Once in the food chain mercury can bioaccumulate causing adverse effects to human health [6].
Can humans survive Mercury?
Tough Place for Life
It is unlikely that life as we know it could survive on Mercury due to solar radiation, and extreme temperatures.
Mercury and its compounds affect the central nervous system, kidneys, and liver and can disturb immune processes; cause tremors, impaired vision and hearing, paralysis, insomnia and emotional instability.
Blood mercury levels above 100 ng/mL have been reported to be associated with clear signs of mercury poisoning in some individuals (e.g., poor muscle coordination, tingling and numbness in fingers and toes).
- Swordfish. A predatory fish that inhabits several ocean zones, swordfish is one of the highest sources of mercury. ...
- Shark. The shark has a similarly high mercury load to that of swordfish. ...
- Tilefish. ...
- King Mackerel. ...
- Bigeye Tuna. ...
- Marlin. ...
- Orange Roughy. ...
- Chilean Sea Bass.
The average dark-side temperature is 111° ± 3°K. The thermal inertia of the surface required to fit this temperature is close to that for the moon and indicates that Mercury and the moon have very similar top surface layers.