Eu Mercury phase out in Measuring and Control Equipment - EEB

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REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE “EU MERCURY PHASE OUT IN MEASURING AND CONTROL EQUIPMENT”Mean 9557% INCREASEIN"MentallyRetarded”Population9.4 million"mentally retarded"2.4 million"gifted"406080 100 120 14016070 I.Q. 1305 Point Decrease in Mean IQA few years ago it was estimated that IQ distribution for the USA (population: approximately 260million) with a mean of 100, left about 6 million individuals with significant cognitive deficits whoneeded social support. That costs the society money as well as causing problems for the individualfamilies. If that curve shifts down five points, or in other words: if you give this mercury toeverybody born in the population, you then produce a substantial increase in people needing thatsocial support. The estimate of lost productivity due to the mercury toxicity from all sources in theUSA was done a few years ago by colleagues at Mount Sinai and it was estimated to be 8, 7 billiondollars annually.When it comes to mercury in fish it is difficult to give advice to individual patients about what fishto stay away from. The trick is that we want the mercury out of the fish and not the fish out of themother because fish is important for the intellectual development of the fetus and baby. Thus, it isbetter to go for alternatives that will not further expose people to mercury.In 2005, the “Mercury in Health Care” policy paper from WHO noted that mercury insphygmomanometers was the largest reservoir of mercury in health care. . It is not the dominantsocietal exposure to mercury – which is from coal power plants – but it is within our capacity toreduce the effect.Having used mercury sphygmomanometers for about 25 years in practice the speaker can testifythat the mercury column is not particularly easily read, even when it is cleaned and calibrated, andalso you have to bring it over to the patient. The class around the column itself unfortunately liftsup, especially if you tinker with it and the mercury spills out at the bottom. This is why they have tokeep coming around refilling the column with some regularity.35
REPORT FROM THE CONFERENCE “EU MERCURY PHASE OUT IN MEASURING AND CONTROL EQUIPMENT”mean 1006.0 million"mentally retarded"6.0 million"gifted"406080100120 140I.Q.7 13160Effects of a small shift in IQ distribution in a population of 260To calibrate these devices the pressure measuring end of it is taken of, the cuff and the tubing, etc –the device is then hooked up to two reading devices with a Y tube – one is a mercury manometerand the other is one of the other devices. Two different kinds of measuring manometers are thusneeded to calibrate.The American Heart Association stated some years ago that it is surprising that nearly 100 yearsafter it was first discovered and subsequent recognition of its limited accuracy, the Korotkofftechnique for measuring blood pressure has continued essentially unchanged. That is auscultation ofthe sounds produced by a beating heart as you hear it through a stethoscope. The “gold standard“for clinical blood pressure measurement has always been readings taken by a trained health careprovider using a mercury sphygmomanometer and the Korotkoff sound technique. However, thereis increasing evidence that this procedure may lead to the misclassification of a large numbers ofindividuals.So what is the first and largest problem with the accuracy of this technique and this measurement?It is the person between the stethoscope ear pieces. If the person does not know what he/she shouldbe listening for or if the person is not listening well then there will be mistakes.There is an epidemiological study in which they tried to standardize across national settings andbetween a multitude of providers in a level of accuracy for epidemiology that you really don’t havein clinical practice. In doing so you identify a number of errors and inter-observer biases thatoverwhelmed much of the rest of the inaccuracy.36
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Eu Mercury phase out in Measuring and Control Equipment - EEB

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