Mercury Rules Rigged

Wondering whether you have any capacity left for outrage? Try this on for size: According to a February 3 report by the EPA's Inspector General Nikki Tinsley, EPA political appointees set "modest" new mercury pollution limits that just so happened to coincide with those in President Bush's "Clear Skies" proposal. They then told EPA scientists to work backwards to justify those limits.

She also found that the EPA did not adequately evaluate the environmental health effects of the proposed rule on children. "Rather than basing its decision on good science, the administration stacked the deck to give its industry friends what they wanted," says Nat Mund, a Sierra Club clean-air expert.

One in six American women has mercury levels in her blood high enough to put her baby at risk from mercury poisoning.

When coal is burned at power plants, it releases mercury into our atmosphere. This mercury falls to earth in rain, running into our lakes, rivers and streams. Bacteria in the water transform this mercury into toxic methyl-mercury. When fish consume this bacteria, they become contaminated. Fish that eat other contaminated fish end up with even higher levels of toxic mercury in their flesh. Humans can be contaminated with this methyl-mercury by eating contaminated fish.

Locally, the Okefenokee Swamp acts like a holding tank for atmospheric mercury (due to the lack of tides or currents) with the result that we have mercury advisories in fish in the St Marys River.

From the Smokestack to Your Dinner Plate

Mercury is a serious toxin, and accidental high-level exposure can result in severe nervous system damage, even death. But exposure to toxic mercury primarily affects fetal development. In unborn children, it can influence the development of the brain and nervous system. When infants are exposed to toxic mercury by their mothers through breast milk, the result can be extremely dangerous and can cause delays in walking, talking, and fine motor skills.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency's Food Advisory Committee expanded health warnings about the toxic effects of eating mercury-tainted fish in a draft advisory set to be finalized early 2004.

There is a better way, rather than simply increasing warnings. The Bush administration should hold polluting corporations to higher standards. The administration should strongly enforce the laws that we know work to protect our communities from mercury pollution and require that polluting industries use the best available technology to reduce their mercury emissions.

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