What are these?

[Cyril Roger Brossard]

Just discussed this today with someone very experienced in the history and uses of the Tennessee freshwater pearl industry, and the Tennessee pearls have been used for a long time for medicinal etc, due to their higher purity, especially the natural ones . Although probably no pearls are as pollution free as decades ago, the freshwater in the USA areas may have at least slight higher purity from such.

Daddys Little Pearl

This is very interesting, may we know if this is such as snake oil medicine or issued from documented uses (academic / medical)?
I wouldn't say that in our present society a single area in the world is "pollution free", pollution does not necessarily mean toxic waste although the general understanding of pollution nowadays is usually represented with black-smoke-belching towers and highly toxic waste being discarded into rivers (please excuse the overly simplistic image)... Any modification (how infinitesimal may it be ) of a biome is considered as a pollution, hence a modification in the chemical composition of (here to stay within the scope of the topic) the water.

Considering that the Tennessee is flowing some 1400km and pass through four States and that the local population of mussels has been subject to water pollution, invasive species and alteration of the ecosystem due to the creation of dams, I would be careful to name it a "pollution free". Not to throw the stone to any state in the USA but your affirmation would be well complemented with some academic studies (maybe from the AWCC ?) Consider the following:

Number four in our America's five most polluted river list is the Tennessee River. This river is also know as the Cherokee river, and is a tributary river of the Ohio river, so any pollution problems this river suffers, the Ohio river will most likely suffer it as well. Problems started in 1933 When Tennessee Valley Authority began building dams, restricting the river's free flow.

link1.

The recent discovery locally of pharmaceuticals in water is no exception, and learning more about the effects of new contaminants, as well as solutions, will take time — just as it has in previous decades when researchers and regulators tackled yesteryear’s “new” problems of raw sewage, industrial waste, PCBs and DDT, to name a few.

“This is going to follow the same scenario of other problems. We’ll start tracking and measuring, which will result in new controls and criteria (water quality standards,)” said Dr. Richard Urban, manager of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Water Pollution Control Division in the Chattanooga field office.

link2.

 

[Daddys Little Pearl]

Was actually told this by a person involved with the Latendresse pearls historical operation here in Tennessee, who I met today and asked them about the uses in the past. And yes our rivers are also polluted, there are probably few in the world right now that are not. I do know the Tennessee river is probably less polluted than the Cumberland river here in Nashville (I won't drink the water here and have not for over 15 years). The TVA system , while contributing much to providing control for energy use etc of our abundant waters in Tennessee, also is quite careless at times such as when the Corps of Engineers released water upstream during the Nashville monsoon several years ago and flooded downtown Nashville, the Opryland Hotel, our largest shopping mall, and hundreds of homes, that one still in legal battles and may go to the courts. The sewage systems in Nashville have improved greatly over the years, but runoff from businesses on the rivers is still a problem as they don't want to follow the rules.
Having said this, I am not sure the pearl farms are actually on the Tennessee river. I do know one of the pearl farms is on Birdsong Creek, near Kentucky Lake. I have never seen that particular lake, but have been told by friends that fish there that it is one of the nicest in the state and absolutel beautiful. If Birdsong Creek is a tributary to the Tennessee river and being away from the large cities, I would assume it is at least somewhat if not significantly cleaner water, but this is only a guess. Many of our smaller tributary rivers in Tennessee are definitely cleaner with farm runoff being the main issue; with Tennessee still being an agricultural state.
From what I have been told, in addition to the Tennessee pearl industry suppling the tissue to other countries both historically and presently, there was use of these pearls in the past for the alternative medicine field to use a general term, both in the past and evidently in the present. Again I would probably never want to consume any of this myself, but other cultures make these remedies on a regular basis and evidently think they are safe and effective; one could wonder about the placebo effect.

Daddys Little Pearl