Mercury and Acrodynia

The etiology of acrodynia (also known as pink disease) was unknown for more than 100 years before the role of mercury (Hg) as the primary source of this illness was pointed. This history has been forgotten or ignored. The almost forgotten disease, mostly affecting infants and young children, is probably the best-studied effect of human Hg poisoning.

Infants with pediatric acrodynia can have pink hands and feet, a loss of teeth, increased blood pressure and pulse rate, hair loss, itching, and premature death. In 1948, the pediatrician Josef Warkany (1902–1992) and the chemical engineer Donald Hubbard in Cincinnati demonstrated Hg in 25 out of 28 cases of the disease. They showed that pediatric acrodynia was caused by Hg intoxication from teething powders, ointments applied to the mother’s nipples and other similar products that contained calomel (Hg(I) chloride).

Warkany discovered the toxicity of teething powders containing Hg when he requested urine tests for his patients with acrodynia. Though his suspected arsenic or thallium poisoning to be the cause of the disease, the tests returned negative results for those two metals. The urine tests came back positive for Hg, leading Warkany to conclude that infants exposed to Hg in calomel-containing medications developed acrodynia.

Some physicians were reluctant to accept Warkany's findings, but calomel was removed from teething powders, and the incidence of acrodynia declined sharply. The video below is an excerpt from an interview from 1980 with Dr. Warkany.

READ MORE:

Bjørklund G. Mercury and acrodynia. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine 1995; 10: 145-146. https://tinyurl.com/ya9o7zz9