Thursday, February 18, 2016

Interim Clinical Update for metal exposures in Portland

Hi everyone! I'm posting this PDF from the agencies working on heavy metal exposures in Portland (OR) because it's rather hard to find directly. There is lots of good information here, though I would point out that the agencies are being cautious in not trying to quantify exposures (though we have some helpful data there, as you can see in other posts on this site). The risks listed and recommendations are all evidence-based (that's important), and your clinical physician will probably be seeing this document soon if not already.

I do have to highlight one passage that addresses an issue that has come up: "Under no circumstances should chelation or provocation be used before testing." The authors thought this important enough to use a bold font! If you decide to get tested, please do objective testing that can be compared to reference values; doing a chelation challenge pumps up the test value and creates false positives, as well as exposing you to a chelating agent before you know if there is a problem. You can also read the American College of Medical Toxicology's position statement here, which explains the reasoning in more detail.

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