ID#: 18447
Caption:
This 1970 image was created during an investigation that took place in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in Otero County, dealing with a number of cases of human, and porcine methylmercury poisoning. This particular view depicted what had been the Golden West Seed Company’s grain elevator, the company from which methylmercury treated grains had been purchased, and then fed to a family hog. It was determined that hogs fed grains treated with the fungicide, methylmercury dicyanamide, were later butchered, and their meat fed to the hog owner’s family members, who in turn, began to exhibit symptoms of mercury poisoning, which included “ataxia, decreased vision, and depression of consciousness, which progressed to coma over a period of 3-weeks”. Subsequent studies on urine specimens from the affected family members, the pork, and the grain seed, all showed results indicative of abnormally high levels of mercury, confirming the diagnosis of organic mercury poisoning.
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Content Provider(s): CDC/ Dr. William Likosky
Creation Date: 1970
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