Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product sugar: Environ Health

Alternative Medicine Review, June, 2009 by R. Dufault, LeBlanc B., Schnoll R.

Mercury cell chlor-alkali products are used to produce thousands of other products including food ingredients such as citric acid, sodium benzoate, and high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is used in food products to enhance shelf life. A pilot study was conducted to determine if high fructose corn syrup contains mercury, a toxic metal historically used as an anti-microbial agent. High fructose corn syrup samples were collected from three different manufacturers and analyzed for total mercury. "[he samples were found to contain levels of mercury ranging from below a detection limit of 0.005 to 0.570 micrograms mercury per gram of high fructose corn syrup. Average daily consumption of high fructose corn syrup is about 50 grams per person in the United States. With respect to total mercury exposure, it may be necessary to account for this source of mercury in the diet of children and sensitive populations.

Commentary

This blockbuster article by lead researcher Renee Dufault, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientist, along with several co-authors well known to environmental medicine, was recently published in the online journal Environmental Health. This article ostensibly reveals the whereabouts of the "missing mercury" that the chlor-alkali industry has been unable to account for. There are currently eight chlor-alkali plants in the United States (50 total, worldwide), and some of them continue to use the outmoded mercury-cell method for producing their products. According to the EPA, each year approximately seven tons of mercury enters each of those plants--mercury that has been unaccounted for in products leaving the plant. It is possible that some of that mercury has now been found, not in the smokestacks or the waste water of the plants, but in the actual products that they manufacture, such as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

In this study the authors acquired samples of HFCS from the chlor-alkali plants in the United States. HFCS and other products from plants that use the newer "membrane method" appeared relatively mercury flee. But testing revealed mercury contamination in all HFCS samples from the plants using the outdated mercury-cell methods. Mercury was found in these products in a range from 0.0650.570 [micro]g/g HFCS. With a U.S. average daily HFCS intake of 50 g, regular HFCS consumers could be consuming significant amounts of mercury.

2009;8:2. www.ehjournal.net/ content/8/1/2