Report Confirms Mercury’s Spread
Given the number of dismal reports already stacked up at various government agencies, the conclusion of a new EPA study on mercury-tainted fish wasn’t surprising.
Given the number of dismal reports already stacked up at various government agencies, medical associations and environmental groups, the conclusion of a new EPA study on mercury-tainted fish wasn’t surprising.
But the findings should generate a greater sense of urgency for the Obama administration and power companies to reduce and eventually eliminate harmful emissions of the neurotoxin from coal-fired plants.
From 2000 to 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency sampled the tissue of fish from 500 lakes and reservoirs around the nation.
Nearly 50 percent of the lakes and reservoirs were found to contain fish with potentially harmful levels of mercury. Also worrisome was the discovery that 17 percent of the bodies of water had fish containing PCBs, a carcinogen used in lubricants and coolants until the 1970s.
Mercury has long been under scrutiny by federal and state governments. A similar study of 300 streams nationwide by the U.S. Geological Survey, released this summer, found mercury in all fish tested, with one-quarter of them exceeding EPA safety standards.
Eating fish in limited quantities, it’s important to note, can be good for one’s health. But eating too much mercury-contaminated fish can lead to problems, including damage to the kidneys and nervous system.
Pregnant women and small children must be particularly careful about fish consumption. Numerous studies have linked mercury to lower IQs, impairment of fine motor skills and disruptions of brain growth.
It is in America’s long-term interests to curb mercury emissions from one of its chief sources, coal-fired power plants. Although utility companies argue that newer scrubbers have curbed contamination, the percentage of tainted lakes, streams and reservoirs argue that the danger is still very much with us.
This year, a federal appeals court tossed a Bush-era emissions plan that was generally backed by the utility industry. The EPA is now drafting revised, presumably tougher restrictions on mercury.
No one wants to add to the costs of the generating of electricity, particularly in this economy, and the feds should strive to avoid or minimize the potential for higher charges for consumers.
But mercury pollution already extracts an enormous cost from Americans through serious illness, neurological damage and – most unconscionable of all – impaired cognitive development of children. Ridding our waterways of mercury isn’t optional or postponable. It’s imperative.
Related Articles
Recent Comments
