In April 1926 Dr. Alfred Stock, Professor of Chemistry at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, published a paper entitled: “The Danger of Mercury Vapour”. His own illness, which had driven him to the brink of desperation, impelled him “to warn anyone involved with mercury during their work of the danger of this volatile metal”.

In a long report he describes his suffering:

“For almost 25 years I experienced increasing ailments, which sometimes became unbearable to the point that I doubted I would be able to continue my scientific work. However, no doctor succeeded in discovering the reason for this condition. The symptoms were: mental dullness, exhaustion, lack of motivation and inability to work- particularly intellectually. The most depressing condition was loss of memory. This continually worsened, so that eventually I came close to total memory loss. I forgot telephone numbers on the way to the phone, I forgot all I had learned, and I forgot my own published scientific work. In addition, I suffered from depression and tormenting restlessness. Normally high- spirited, I now shied away from company, avoided society, kept out of people’s way and shunned social contacts. I lost pleasure in everything. My sense of humour disappeared and obstacles which seemed no problem at all before, now appeared insurmountable.”

In the early twenties, Stock’s co-workers also started to complain of health problems which were quite similar to his own initial symptoms. Dr. Lewin, the most distinguished German toxicologist of the time, was consulted. He stated with certainty that all who had fallen ill at the institute were suffering from mercury intoxication. Indeed, tests showed there was mercury in the air of the laboratory as well as in the urine of all the sufferers. Stock had been in contact with mercury for 25 years but had never considered that mercury vapour might have an impact on his health.

Lewin urgently recommended taking the utmost care in laboratories and also advised removing amalgam dental fillings. This advice drove Stock to perform his own trials. He determined the amount of mercury released from amalgam dental fillings under body-temperature and, in three different tests, found it to be 0.487, 0.9 and 1.27 micrograms per day1. A filling which had been in place a long while released 2.1 _g/day. (The limit for drinking water is 0.004 _g/litre (Germany 1984)). Stock urgently demanded that amalgam should be avoided whenever possible. “It will become evident one day that the careless introduction of amalgam into dentistry was a grave sin against humanity.”

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