heavy metal exposure
This summer I’ve been taking a course called “Teaching Composition in Community College and College” at Johns Hopkins University. Throughout the term, we’ve been researching First Year Composition classes and devising a syllabus based on our own pedagogical leanings. Because I believe good writing and good reading are inextricably intertwined, I’ve been looking for anchor texts to use throughout my course. For instance, I’ve selected Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris as the anchor text for my students to read as they work on their personal narrative. But I was having a harder time determining the exemplars to use as my students work on their research paper.
When I stumbled across a selection of Rutgers University’s sample research papers, I realized this was what I was looking for. However, I got sidetracked when I saw a paper titled “Pediatric Cadmium Toxicity in America: Exploring Everyday Exposure Risk for Cavities and Decreased Neurodevelopment” by Nikki Chand. Here was a paper exploring heavy metal toxicity and its impact on children! Given my health history of platinum poisoning, I quickly consulted Chand’s Works Cited page and began looking up these articles.
I was astonished to discover documentation of people who had suffered similar symptoms to mine as a result of exposure to platinum, the same metal that poisoned me when I was eleven. The article “Heavy Metal Poisoning,” published by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) and updated as of March 2008, states that common symptoms from platinum poisoning include “…gastrointestinal, renal, and neurological symptoms, such as headaches, irritability, psychosis, stupor, coma, and convulsions.” A number of these correspond with my experience.
Next, I consulted the FDA’s website to see whether there were any warnings related to platinum. From previous searches, I was aware of warnings they had for mercury amalgam fillings. Specifically, the site states that “…young children may be more sensitive to the neurotoxic effects of mercury vapor.”
Alas, I didn’t come across a documented case of someone suffering from heavy metal poisoning due to his/her braces like mine. But these sites once again reaffirmed for me that there is a subset of children who are vulnerable to heavy metal toxicity because of their underdeveloped organ system. Perhaps some of these children, similar to me, are also deficient in an enzyme that aids in detoxification.
In making this post, it is not my intent to alarm parents who have children with dental amalgam fillings or braces. After all, it is a very small minority of children who are sensitive to these heavy metals. But what I do hope to do is make people aware of the toxins that are in our environment and those that we put in our body—and to ask questions of practitioners if you’re concerned.
One of the things I learned from my mom when I was a child, and something I’ve learned to appreciate now that I’m a parent, is the degree to which we need to advocate for our children when they’re not feeling their best. Sometimes medicine is more art than science, and it’s important to explore multiple paths and modalities in search of the answers that resonate with us.