Heavy Metal Florists: Jill's Journey

       Since the early 1990's, florists in the United States have been chronically exposed to contaminated flowers imported from other countries with little to no pesticide regulations, as well as from industry workplace practices.  Many pesticides and fungicides contain heavy metals, such as mercury, arsenic, cadmium, lead and silver. Chronic exposure to heavy metals from pesticides and fungicides can result in neurological and organ damage. A wide range of symptoms, such as vertigo, tremors, metal taste, excess salivation, memory loss, and chronic fatigue, defy ordinary diagnosis because doctors are not trained to consider heavy metal toxicity as a possibility.  Florists with many years of experience, dating especially from the nineties, are often misdiagnosed and never know that their problems are due to high levels of heavy metals in their bodies. 

A group of florists in Northern California have tested positive for very high levels of exposure to heavy metals. The story of one of those florists was previously covered in this blog.  This is a continuation of that story.  The link below is to a YouTube video of Jill describing her experiences over the last 6-7 years:

Heavy Metal Florists: Jill's Journey

Since that blog, the union representing the grocery workers in their Northern California area has published an article in the hopes of alerting other florists to possible heavy metal exposure.

The memory loss suffered by the original group of seven long-time florists, all floral managers, is being studied by a researcher at the University of San Francisco.  The memory loss sustained is permanent, but it may be possible to retrain other parts of their brains to compensate.  There is also organ damage, especially to the kidneys and to the adrenal glands.  Depending on the susceptibility of the individual, damage to the kidneys can lead to complete kidney failure, and has resulted in the death of an eighth florist who was in the process of testing when he died.  Damage to the adrenal glands leads to extreme chronic fatigue as well as immunological problems.  The list of possible symptoms is not short, as the entire body is permanently affected by chronic heavy metal poisoning.  A single therapy exists to try to remove heavy metals from the body, which is often not covered by ordinary insurance or Medicare.  Families and individuals struggle to pay for the therapy that is required, as it is considered not mainstream therapy.  It is called chelation therapy, and it is hard on the body and on the person.

Part of Jill's journey was to fight to obtain disability status from the Social Security Administration.  After a legal battle in the courts, disability status was granted retroactively to Jill, setting a precedent for anyone else who applies with similar problems and diagnosis.  What took Jill three years to accomplish now takes three months for others.

If you know of a friend or family member who is a florist or has been one in the past, please consider letting them know that they could be at risk.  If they are experiencing symptoms such as described in this blog, have them contact Jill at heavymetalflorist2@gmail.com