I just want to help contribute a little to this conversation.

I don't know of all the health benefits associated with foot baths, but my company (Herb Allure) recently considered manufacturing these devices. Before we did, we wanted to confirm whether or not they really work, especially for mercury. We don't want to be associated with fads or Gimmicks.

We borrowed a popular unit from a friend of ours and ran our three employees through it according to the instructions provided with the unit. Then we ran the unit twice without feet in it at all. Here's what we found.

The water was visually identical in all cases.

This is most likely because the gunk that you see in the water has nothing to do with your feet or detoxing your body. It comes from the corroded metal electrode in the water. This electrode corrodes at a hyper rate caused by a process called electrolysis. The result is everything from foam to slimy films to black flecks in the water.

We had the water lab tested for metal content, including heavy metals. We found no difference between the normal sample and the control samples (samples that had no feet in them). Additionally, two of the three test subjects have amalgam fillings.

We don't know if there are other health benefits associated with the device but I do know that some people do feel better after a few weeks of using it (I've talked to several people about this in the course of our research). Unfortunately, most people don't consider that they are told that they have to take mineral supplements with each treatment.

Considering that most people in the world are mineral deficient, it would be interested to have people try taking the supplements without the foot spa treatment and see if they feel different in a few weeks.

Here are some photos of the experiment. We will be posting the lab results as soon as we get time (time is hard to come by):

Foot Spa Test Photographs

Despite the fact that we estimate that we could increase our annual revenue by at least 4 times (400%) by manufacturing and selling these units, we have decided not to manufacture them because we have not found any evidence that they actually do anything.

Just thought you should know.