Reply #87: WTF is the difference between the toxicity of ethyl and methyl mecury, Dave? [View All]

[mhatrw]

Produce the studies. Let's see the studies. All we know is that ethyl mercury clears the blood faster. To where, the brain?

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/569558

One of the few researchers who studies the effects of ethyl mercury is Thomas Burbacher, PhD, professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and director of the infant primate research lab at the National Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle. Burbacher's studies of ethyl mercury and thimerosal in primates are cited by both sides of the thimerosal debate.

Burbacher says that just because ethyl mercury is gone from an infant's blood soon after it receives a dose of thimerosal -- a half-life of just 3.7 days in the Pichichero study -- doesn't mean it's gone from the body.

"Just because it came out of the blood doesn't mean it is excreted from the body. It could have gone to the brain," Burbacher tells WebMD. "In primates, you actually get more mercury in the brain after exposure to ethyl mercury than with methyl mercury -- it has an easier time crossing the blood-brain barrier."

Pichichero agrees with Burbacher on this...

That's all we know. It clears the blood faster. Probably most are able to excrete it better than the unlucky few.