There is a new very short film on mercury in your body from the Minamata Convention on mercury. There are a whole series of short films on the subject produced by UNESCO with the Convention secretariat. On YouTube under the tag #MakeMercuryHistory there are several short films that might answer questions you have about mercury. People are still asking me about it over the fish couters in various markets.
Remember Governments may come and go, and a million people are tweeting about the USA excutive officer while he gives a life feed speech in Mississippi — but heavy metals are here to stay so the Mercury Convention folks are working internationally to: contain mercury, reduce technology that uses mercury, find alternative technologies to replace them, remediate the environment and the improved or compensate lives that have been damaged by this particular heavy metal. Also, I’ve been updating the Mercury and Minamata Convention on Mercury page of my website. So have a look. And use that #MakeMercuryHistory.
Some people find understanding through technical language and academic conveyance. But almost all people can learn through well-constructed Aristotelian Plot Curves.
Using accurate scientific, medical or other precise technical information to inform fictional narratives is not for the faint of heart. It does not mean “dumbing down” …
Big news! I’m going to Geneva with Chasing Mercury next week. I'll be covering the 1st Conference of the Parties Signatory to the Minamata Convention on Mercury since the treaty went into force, August 16, 2017. The primary themes of Chasing Mercury were inspired by the signing of the Minamata Convention by a UNESCO initiative in 2013 at the Kumamoto Prefecture of Japan, nearly sixty years after the toxic effects of the persistent organic pollutant methyl mercury was found to cause Minamata disease— and forty-five years after a ballerina named Sicily met a powwow dancer whistleblower journalist name Forest.
This weekend I had the honor of attending a young friends First Communion at the San Rafael Mission in Marin County. People do not generally think of me as Catholic for good reason. The character Sicily Marshall in Chasing Mercury reflects a bit of mine in an excerpt from Chasing Mercury, Chapter 15, Santa Monica Bay 1960-1962...
What we do know is that Breast Feeding improves the health of both mothers and babies which far outweighs any toxic effects of mercury-- in most circumstances. IF you are worried and are in an environment where there is know to be high Mercury levels see a clinician. Know that if Mercury is present ( and there is some everywhere) Levels go down within in 2-3 months after birth -- and again there is more mercury in cows milk based formula's than in human breast milk. The damage of not breast feeding an infant is far more lethal in terms of disease than mercury. However-- an environment where a mother is exposed to high levels of mercury during pregnancy -- can be dangerous and cause Minamata disease --but that mercury is passed across the placenta into the blood stream of the baby. But Mercury is poorly transmitted to and through breast milk. If you have the luxury of avoiding mercury ingestion by all means do. But if you have to choose between breast feeding and not -- mercury contamination is not your biggest problem. You might see the film Breast Milk and follow journalist, writer health communicator Kimberly Seals Allers (author of the Big LetDown).
