As I mentioned before, mercury is in the air, as well as the food supply (including many vegetables, fruits and cereal products). Mercury is also in many water supplies, which is why many municipal/city water supplies filter their water for mercury. I brought up this point simply to explain that we are being exposed to mercury from all kinds of sources, some greater, some lesser than others.

With Algin, at least NSP's Algin, IF there is any mercury in it, it absolutely cannot be higher than 0.3 micrograms by California State Law (the most restrictive law in the United States).

To help resolve this question, I've sent an email to NSP asking if they can tell me what, if any, mercury is in their Algin. I'll let everyone know as soon as I receive a reply.

Of course, no amount of mercury in safe for consumption, and California's Proposition 65 does not declare the limit as safe...it declares that this limit is the maximum allowable level that is legal.

I, too, am skeptical regarding government safety standards, but at least California is lowering the legal limit in an effort to reduce people's exposure.

For those of you outside the United States, here's another reference for mercury. The World Health Organization has estimated that people are exposed to 3.8 to 21 micrograms of mercury vapor per day just from their amalgam fillings, with 3 to 17 micrograms per day being retained in the body. The WHO also states that a specific "no-effect" level cannot be established, which means there is no level of exposure to mercury vapor that can be considered harmless. These estimations may actually be low, considering electro-chemical studies of amalgam corrosion (by Gross and Harrison) have calculated that an average amalgam filling releases 15 micrograms of mercury vapor per day. Thus, a person with 10 average fillings (a common number of fillings in adults) would be exposed to 150 micrograms per day. (Source: "Is Dental Amalgam Safe?" Journal of Australian College of Nutritional & Enviornmental Medicine, December 1993)

For me, Algin has been tremendously beneficial. I'm pretty sensitive to mercury, at least in my own opinion. I'm 6 years post-removal and I still can't eat any fish, or even cilantro in Mexican salsa, without experiencing a recurrence of my mercury-related symptoms. For me, Algin has never caused any recurrence of these symptoms. In fact, I've done my own type of test by eating fish with and without Algin. The difference has been dramatic. Bad mercury symptoms without Algin, little or no symptoms with Algin.

For those of you who can't take a non-vegetarian Algin, then you might want to try some other type of fiber, such as Slippery Elm powder or perhaps bran fiber. While these fibers don't have the same affinity for heavy metals that Algin does, at least they can help facilitate bowel movements and hopefully some excretion of mercury.