From Tekran Inc., a world leader in the manufacture of mercury detection instruments http://www.tekran.com/special/method.html.  Tekran manufactures a full line of analytical instrumentation for the measurement of ultra-trace amounts of mercury. Applications include ambient air, water, biota, and other environmental samples.

Methodology: HALITOSIS Program
Hg Approximate Levels In Teeth Or Sputum Informational Screening (HALITOSIS) program

Although the "Hg Approximate Levels In Teeth Or Sputum Informational Screening" program is meant only for amusement, HALITOSIS provides a quick, screening method for peoples' exhaled mercury levels.

Apparatus:

Method:
1) The analyzer is set to sample continuously at 5 minute cycles. A 2.5 minute cycle time would offer higher throughput, but that would defeat the whole point of wanting to pass the time.) The flow rate of the analyzer is set to 1.5 litre/min.

2) At the start of a measurement cycle, a willing participant is given a straw and given instructions on how to blow into the analyzer. The straw is placed into the end of the sample line. Since the straw is not a tight fit, any excess exhalation flow is vented and any shortfall in the exhalation rate are made up with ambient air.

The instructions generally consist of something like:

"Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly and steadily though the straw. Keep blowing until you run out of breath. There is no need to cough up a lung or anything, just take your time. Please don't
pass out. There is no prize for the highest (or lowest) reading."

3) During the remainder of the sampling cycle, the analyzer will sample ambient room air. This is a good time to record the person's name and affiliation and the time of the sample. It takes about 2 minutes after the end of the sampling period for the result to become available. The next person may be sampled during this period, since the dual cartridge design of the Model 2537A allows continuous sampling with overlapped analysis.

4) It's generally a good idea to record the ambient levels before and after a series of tests to get some idea of the background. The reported readings are not corrected for background.

Observations and Comments
1) The method does not control for the rate of exhalation, the exhalation time, or the total exhaled sample volume. The actual concentrations in breath are likely to be far higher than reported using this method since the majority of time is spent sampling background air.

2) The method does not enforce standard conditions prior to sampling. It is well known that the mechanical action of chewing, or the chemical and thermal effects of drinking hot beverages (particularly coffee) will liberate relatively large amounts of mercury from fillings. The only limits imposed by this method is that we don't allow half eaten pizza to be fed into our inlet line since we have found that it clogs the filters.

One must not lose sight of the fact that the potential health effects of mercury amalgam fillings is a serious issue. Our Links page has one or two web sites dealing with this topic.

The Model 2537A clearly demonstrates that people with mercury amalgam fillings can, under certain circumstances, excrete relatively large concentrations of elemental mercury in their breath. With appropriate front end apparatus, the Model 2537A could easily yield quantitative data. The 2.5 minute cycle time allows relatively high sample throughput and provides ample sensitivity for any measurement that could be contemplated.

For a sampling of results from actual breath measurements, check out the events listed at the end of our What's New page.

Scientific Conferences and Trade Shows

We try to have at least one of our Model 2537A monitors running during the show, measuring ambient air levels at the conference. As a general rule, we find that mercury levels in the room track the number of people present. In a small room, we find that levels go up after coffee has been served. This is consistent with speculation that the Model 2537A is actually monitoring emissions from attendees' dental amalgam fillings.

Those of you who have attended or exhibited at trade shows will know that things can occasionally get somewhat slow, boring, tedious, monotonous, wearisome, and dull. To pass the time, we started allowing other exhibitors to blow into our instrument. This became an immediate hit, since it made time pass more quickly for the other exhibitors too. Before we knew it, everyone wanted to blow into our box.

We quickly found that this concealed all of the subtle background variations we had been recording. Our beautiful, multi-colored graph automatically scales itself to the highest reading found, and these mouth readings were sometimes hundreds of times higher than the backgrounds we had been measuring. The subtle ambient fluctuations were reduced to a flat line hugging the X axis.

Thus started our Hg Approximate Levels In Teeth Or Sputum Informational Screening (HALITOSIS) program.

We are the first to admit that HALITOSIS is not quantitative. We make no claim as to the health effects (or lack thereof) of any readings we have found. We do not want to hear from lawyers representing any dental associations anywhere.

We occasionally keep a record of the individuals and the mercury levels we measured when they blew into our analyzer. We have done this for quite a few shows, but in most cases, we misplaced the napkins that we were using as our official recording medium. We have become more organized now, and will be making the results available here. So, if you have had HALITOSIS, the whole world will now know.

We occasionally keep a record of the individuals and the mercury levels we measured when they blew into our analyzer. We have done this for quite a few shows, but in most cases, we misplaced the napkins that we were using as our official recording medium. We have become more organized now, and will be making the results available here. So, if you have had HALITOSIS, the whole world will now know.