Bush warns of mercury danger, ignores solution

During this third week of the President’s Children’s Health Month campaign, the Environmental Protection Agency is urging parents to feed their children a healthy diet, and to take steps to reduce their families’ exposure to pesticides and other contaminants in food. Today, EPA advises parents to Protect Children from Contaminated Fish by tracking local fish advisories for mercury and refraining from eating mercury-contaminated fish. Ironically, while EPA warns parents about the serious danger of mercury in fish, the White House is working to ensure that the #1 source of mercury can keep on polluting.

Coal-fired power plants spew hundreds of tons of mercury emissions into our nation’s air every year. Once airborne, mercury drifts in the atmosphere but eventually deposits in water bodies. Mercury has contaminated 10.2 million acres of lakes, estuaries, and wetlands and 415,000 miles of stream, rivers, and coastline. Aquatic microorganisms convert the heavy metal into the organic form methylmercury, which accumulates in many edible fish species. Fish are a major source of mercury exposure in the U.S.

Exposures by pregnant women are of particular concern, because mercury can cross the placenta and enter the fetal brain. Children exposed to even low levels of mercury before birth can experience serious neurological and development impairment. Specific symptoms may include poor performance on tests of attention, fine motor function, language, visual-spatial abilities, and memory. According to the National Academy of Sciences, more than 60,000 children born each year may suffer from learning disabilities due to mercury exposure before birth.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned that one in 12 women of childbearing age carry levels of mercury in their bodies that are unsafe for a developing fetus, said Dr. Robert K. Musil, PSR’s CEO and Executive Director. With such widespread contamination and exposure, serious efforts to control mercury emissions should be a top priority.

Unfortunately, the Bush Administration shows no sign of letting up on the push to enact its so-called Clear Skies initiative. This legislation will undermine the Clean Air Act and delay badly needed reductions in power plant mercury emissions. The administration’s polluter-friendly, ‘go slow’ approach to mercury regulation will place thousands of our nation’s children at risk from unnecessary mercury exposure.

Power plants are currently the only unregulated source of mercury air emissions in the United States, producing one-third of all mercury air emissions. Compared with enforcement of the Clean Air Act, the President’s plan would allow power plants to emit three times more mercury. By contrast, vigorous enforcement of existing requirements will result in a 90 percent reduction in annual mercury emissions over the next five years.

Given the weak mercury standards in the President’s Clear Skies legislation, said Musil, the administration’s signature ‘No Child Left Behind’ rhetoric should be rewritten to read ‘No Child Left Unexposed.’

Congressional action on the Clear Skies Act has stalled since its introduction in both the House and Senate, where the bill has received mounting criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. The Clear Skies Act will face its first legislative test in November when the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change and Nuclear Safety is expected to vote on the bill.

The administration has actively opposed attempts by Senator Jeffords and others to develop multi-pollutant legislation that includes mercury emissions standards at least as rigorous as current law. Moreover, recent press reports suggest that EPA may duck its legal responsibility to enforce the existing Clean Air Act with new mercury air standards in place by 2007. One EPA official reportedly invited polluters to seek a year-long delay in the agency’s rulemaking, undermining the administration’s claims that it cares more about children’s health than the polluting industries it serves. Recent statements by EPA officials indicate that the rule will likely set mercury emissions standards at a significantly higher level than either the administration’s own Clear Skies legislation or the technology threshold known as ‘maximum achievable control technology’ – the standard that EPA is legally required to impose.

About The Author:

Michia Inada is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-wellness.com. Obtaining and keeping good health through healthy living, natural healing, great mental health and healthy finances.