"Perpetrator or persecuted? Patients back dentist in probe," October 25, 1994, p. 5A). Here is the Honorable Judge Connick in her decision recommending the yanking of Dr. Huggins's license: "Svare found that mercury in the blood of college students both with and without amalgams was not significantly different" (footnote 15, p. 66, Initial Decision, February 29, 1996). Judge Connick, being omniscient, offers no footnote, so I can't tell you what article by CW Svare she's referring to. If anyone knows off hand, please let me know."

Reply From: Dagfinn Reiersol <reiersol@online.no>

I've searched my database of about 11500 references and found nothing that seems to answer to that description. On the contrary, I found one that Svare had participated in that did find a correlation between amalgam and blood mercury. There have been many studies of amalgam surfaces vs. blood and urine mercury levels, and most of them find a correlation. In Harald Hamre's book (still only availble in Norwegian, but soon to be published in German), he lists 10 studies that did and 2 that didn't. Blood is not a good indicator of mercury exposure from amalgam, but there is a certain tenuous connection.

What's just as important is that 1) the number of amalgam surfaces correlates with tissue mercury levels and 2) blood levels don't correlate well with brain levels. Here are some abstracts. Abraham et al is the one I mentioned. Jokstad et al is an example of poor correlation between blood mercury and all the other measured values. Drasch et al shows correlation between babies' mercury levels and their mothers' amalgam fillings. The rest are about tissue levels. Schiele et al has a correlation between tissue levels and amalgam according to Hamre, but the abstract doesn't reveal it. (SEE FIRST 5 RESEARCH ABSTRACTS BELOW)

* From: Ray S <mercure@PRIMENET.COM>

As I was personally lately exposed to perhaps toxic levels of Carbon Monoxide from the gas furnace ( the CO alarm went off, Gas ompany man came, measured levels of 4 of CO inside, while outside it was clean ZERO = 0 , then, burned plastic wire insulation was noticed, and asbestos exhaust pipe insulation as well), the aldehyde issue came also under discussion. The Gas Company man informed me that the furnace in the place I lease was burning inefficiently, and that the odor coming out was aldehydes from the bad burning, in addition of the Carbon Monoxide CO.

So it seems that natural gas heating furnaces and appliances can generate perhaps formaldehydes, acetaldehydes and all kinds of aldehydes ... Now, the formaldehyde sensitivity and other aldehyde sensitivity with mercury poisoned stems from the central enzyme inhition that is related to a common term between sulfite oxidase, xanthine oxidase and aldehyde dehydrogenase, the common portion is called molydopterin, a compound which normally has disulfide-forked molybdenum-oxygen complex, folate related pterin, phosphage group and some hydrocarbon skeleton in the compound ...

Mercury has very high affinity to the chelator-fork in the molydopterin portion of these 3 enzymes, which all share this same reactive stuctural component .. So, mercury can replace moly-oxygen complex in the fork and can soby INHIBIT all reactivity of these 3 enzymes that share the molydopterin portion ...

So, it would seem that it would be smart to perhaps have one's natural gas furnaces checked for both CO AND ALDEHYDES, as the liver and nervous system of a mercury poisoned can get really badly damaged from these byproducts from incomplete burning of natural gas ... Personally, 3 fingers in my left hand went numb, haven't fully recovered, and this means that my writing to this list may suffer from typo's as the fingers don't all the time follow commands ... I am sorry for that ... The exposure was registered as Hazardous condition by the Gas Company man and I had the case registered by my physician into his charts just in case ...

Now, only nutrients that can really help with this almost very central problem caused by mercury inhibiting these enzymes, are mostly NAC, Folic acid, molybdenum, ortophosphoric acid, and perhaps to lesser degree B12 and perhaps magnesium and supporting ATP formation to get rid of the unoxidative state, perhaps oxygen breathing could help also a bit. We should also remember that mercury is used as a catalyzer in making acetic acid ( vinegar ) and it is a known fact that mercury itself can increase acetaldehyde and other aldehydes by direct catalyzation on certain carbohydrates, and these are some reasons why mercury poisoned often are alcohol-intolerant as well, and additionally DMPS intolerant, as very same enzymes are involved in so many diverse reactions as key players ...

One who is intolerant to DMPS, might be intolerant to Propane, as DMPS is DimerCaptoPropaneSulphonate, so for some very hg poisoned people with low glutathione levels and poor sulfoxidation / aldehyde dehydrogenation, staying away from DMPS, Propane and Natural Gas heating might be a wise choice ...

So, you out there who have propane or natural gas heating inside, please have your appliances checked for aldehydes and carbon monoxide, as it might not be very good for you to let a badly burning gas furnace ruin your nervous system and your liver. In Nothern Europe, this kind of problems are solved with Central Heating, where the heat-generating hydrocarbons are most of the time burned OUTSIDE of the living area, normally water is heated in a boiler, and then the heat is pumper trough radiators that are placed in rooms, and one can enjoy the cheaper heat from the fossiles while one is protected from the direct burning products of an inside gas furnace. I wish this type of design would also spread to US.

I thought that this message might be useful to many out there, so please consider having a check done. Aldehydes are hiding in most suprising places. BTW, Tom Warrens book mentioned of compnay that sells formaldehyde test kits for home use ... Anybody tried those out? I can SMELL them myself, vinegar seems to have a little similar smell to those aldehydes that are escaping for the gas-furnace. But for those whom can not, perhaps the kits could be useful ...

Also make sure to read these books: Poison in Your Teeth: Mercury Amalgam (Silver) Fillings...Hazardous to Your Health! and Mercury Detoxification by Tom McGuire