Diagnosis: Mercury

"...A voyage of discovery that led this idealistic physician into the murky waters of corporate cover-ups and conflicting science, bemused colleagues and corrupt officials, mass poisonings and what may be a widespread but obstinately unrecognized problem for ordinary consumers. She relates that voyage, and the surprising history of mercury, crisply and, for the most part, clearly in Diagnosis: Mercury.... I defy anyone not to be angry by the end of this book."

"Hightower's impressive book is an extension of her own path of discovery and research about mercury in our fish supply."

Washington, DC (February 2011) — When Dr. Jane M. Hightower stumbled onto a medical mystery that started with patients with symptoms she could not diagnose, she searched high and low to understand what these ailments meant. She discovered they shared little beyond a healthy appetite for fish, and her search led her to mercury poisoning, a diagnosis where medical literature and her colleagues offered little clarity.

Dr. Hightower soon discovered that people were being sickened and that public health was suffering at the hands of corporate greed and government apathy. True to the commitment she made to care for the sick, she sought to understand how money and influence led to her patients being poisoned.

In Diagnosis: Mercury, now available in paperback, Hightower tells the story of unlikely allies like the coal industry, the fishing industry, and even the Food & Drug Administration working to hide the truth from consumers. And the truth is simple: people get sick when they eat too much fish with too much mercury.

For the first time, Dr. Hightower brings together data from disparate studies, times, and places to reveal how our government is failing to protect us from mercury poisoning. In her telling of anecdotes about individual patients as well as her discussions of wide-spread mercury poisonings in Japan, Canada, and Iraq, Hightower makes a powerful case to better control this poison in our food supply.

Diagnosis: Mercury explores how the fishing industry convinced a federal judge that mercury in fish would not hurt people. It exposes a complex web of money and influence, and reveals that most of what we know about mercury toxicity is drawn from questionable studies after a mass poisoning in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. These studies have been used repeatedly to create false assurances for regulators, doctors, and the public about the safety of the food we eat.

Mercury poisoning affects more than women of childbearing age and young children. It has been connected to increased risk of heart disease, trouble concentrating, and non-specific symptoms that can affect one's productivity such as fatigue, muscle and joint pain, personality changes, and neurological damage. With Diagnosis: Mercury, Dr. Hightower brings startling new information to light about why everyone who eats certain types of fish should worry about what is on his plate.

Jane M. Hightower, M.D., is a board certified internal medicine physician in San Francisco, California. She published a landmark study that brought the issue of mercury in seafood to national attention. She continues to publish scientific papers and give lectures on the subject.

Diagnosis: Mercury

by Jane M. Hightower, M.D.

An Island Press Paperback

Publication Date: March 29, 2011

ISBN: 978-1-61091-002-6/ Pages: 326/ Price: $22.95

Available at www.islandpress.org or www.diagnosismercury.org

Island Press was established in 1984 to stimulate, shape, and communicate the ideas that are essential for solving environmental problems. Publishing approximately 40 books and other information tools a year, we use a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed approach that brings practical solutions to complex challenges like climate change, the depletion of our oceans, sustainable energy and agriculture, and species extinction. A nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, Island Press publishes for scientists, policy makers, environmental practitioners, students, journalists, and the general public. Island Press — Solutions that inspire change.