Why lab tests always come back negative in mercury toxic people?
That’s because those tests can only measure mercury inside urine and blood, but not inside tissues. They’re only useful when a person is exposed to a lot of mercury in a relatively short time. Imagine if there’s a mercury spill in a building. Those people who are present at the site of a spill inhale huge amounts of mercury in a short time. The inhaled mercury gets fast in their blood and urine, but not inside tissue cells because the cell membranes are keeping most of it out. So in those people lab tests do come back positive because mercury is still present in their blood and urine. Here we’re talking about acute poisoning, where a person has a lot of mercury in blood and urine but almost none inside the tissues. Like I said, that’s because cell membranes are keeping it out. However, they’re not 100% successful in doing this. Some mercury does cross the membranes and accumulates inside the cells. But in order for cells to fill up to such extent that a person gets sick, one would have
