Can Mercury Toxicity Cause Tinnitus or Hearing Loss?

Hi!

Is there anyone here who have had a brief exposure to some form of household elemental mercury recently and had worsening of tinnitus or hearing loss as a result?

Like a broken thermometer, or halogen light bulb that was not properly disposed in the past couple months, so not work/industrial environment related.

And if so, can you pinpoint it as the cause for your tinnitus / hearing loss with certainty (no noise exposure, ototoxic medication, ear inflammation, COVID-19 etc.)?

I searched for information on this and, as far as I know, as mercury is converted to a different type of organic mercury, it will make its way to the brain via blood-brain barrier and can cause all sorts of trouble, including auditory nerve damage.

Thanks, bless you!

 

Was the exposure to mercury vapors?

A broken thermometer / halogen bulb has liquid mercury in them, if I recall correctly. So unless one eats the mercury or gets it into a pore or open wound, it's not really that hazardous. The worst that can happen is that it gets into the water supply or evaporated somehow and then is absorbed into the body.

Mercury absorption into the body does affect the nervous system. That's where the term, "Mad as a hatter" comes from.. they used mercury to balance hats back in the day, or so I'm told.

 

In October i was changing a light bulb but I pressed too hard in the wrong place and the bulb exploded in my hand. I did have a small cut but I'm not sure if that was from picking up the glass or from the actual explosion. It didn't make my tinnitus worse, light bulbs have very small amounts of mercury.

 

Yes, you are right. Thermometers have 1.5 g - 2 g of mercury in them. They are neurotoxic for sure, in fact it's one of the most non radioactive toxic element there is.

I had the misfortune to live in a household where a broken thermometer was vacuumed and wasn't disposed at all. So it was vaporizing for weeks. Even though I'm not sure about the exact amount of exposure but a couple of months from the incident my tinnitus went berserk. I try to find a culprit and some minor noise exposures happened at that time so I can't be certain.

My nerves are literally a wreck from all this anxiety it has caused me plus COVID-19 doesn't make things any easier.

I feel like I'm stuck in a twilight zone.

 

I'm not sure how much mercury a light bulb has, my guess is less than 0.5 g but if the bulb was hot and used before it was definitely in vapor form. If not, it probably just dropped on the floor.

 

Yeah, it was used hence why I changed it. I didn't notice any strange symptoms around it though. Certainly not worth worrying about now!

 

I recently found out I have some elevated mercury levels, and taking DMSA for the test (1500 mg which is an insane dose, I wasn't informed at the time). It not only made me very sick, it changed the characteristics of my tinnitus I believe. I also have amalgam fillings. Not sure if this helps.