Mercury report met with optimism

Coal-fired power plants are the largest industry that remains unregulated with regard to mercury emissions.

July 12, 2000
Web posted at: 12:19 p.m. EDT (1619 GMT)

By Environmental News Network staff

Politicians and activist groups fighting the fight against mercury pollution were heartened by the conclusions of a report on the mercury health risks issued Tuesday by the National Academy of Sciences.

"There are no more excuses," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, in a statement released Tuesday. "It is time to cut mercury pollution and protect Americans' health. Mercury is the last major toxic substance without an emissions control plan. For years Congress and the special interests have kicked the ball down the field. This report brings us to the goal line, and Congress needs to act in the public's interest and to stop doing the bidding of the special interests."

"The science is in," said Michael Belliveau of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. "It's time to stop studying mercury and to get out of consumer products and to reduce it in dirty power plant emissions. It's a public health imperative we are talking about."

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Congress commissioned the NAS in 1998 to reevaluate the science used in a 1997 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that set stringent guidelines for exposure levels of the toxic substance. Electric power and other industry representatives had insisted that the scientific validity of the EPA report be tested before the agency could move on in the regulatory process.

EPA was barred by Congress from moving forward on any regulation of mercury emissions for electric utilities during the NAS review.

The NAS evaluation released Tuesday found that the EPA guidelines suggested in 1997 were justified according to the latest scientific evidence. The report also concluded that the children of women who eat large quantities of seafood during pregnancy way be at a higher risk for neurological problems. Fish and other seafood products are believed to be the main source of mercury in the human diet.

This report "confirms that mercury pollution at current levels is unacceptable," said Felice Stadler of the Clean Air Network, and gives EPA the go-ahead to place standards on the largest industry that remains unregulated over mercury — coal-fired power plants.

Stadler equates the controversy over mercury emissions to the fight between the tobacco industry and federal and private organizations over health issues related to smoking. The tobacco industry had kicked and screamed, insisting that "you must show harm before regulating us," she said.

The electric industry will have a hard time arguing with the NAS report and in fact said it would not quibble with this study, according to Stadler.

"If they decide to fight this, they will look like the smoking industry — not just foolish but irresponsible," she said.

Fish, such as tuna, and other seafood products are thought to be the main way that humans are exposed to mercury

Dan Riedinger of the Edison Electric Institute, a trade association of shareholder-owned electric companies, assures the public that the electric industry accepts the findings of the report and plans to cooperate with the EPA.

"We think it is largely a good report," he said, "and it advances our understanding of mercury."

He points, however, to some areas of uncertainty, such as the exact amount of mercury sent from smokestacks into the air that actually ends up in humans.

"Our hope is that we can address and resolve as many of those issues as soon as possible as EPA heads down the regulatory path."

EPA is scheduled to make set new regulatory guidelines for mercury in mid-December per a court order. This mandate came from a lawsuit brought against the EPA by the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1992 that accused the EPA of taking too long to list coal-fired power plants as sources of mercury.

"This is a crucial policy decision that this report informs," said Chris Van Atten of the Clean Energy Group.

The other sector of commerce affected by the new study is the fishing industry, since it is their product that is implicated as the main mode of mercury poisoning.

"The industry is concerned that people with will think 'don't eat fish,'" said Michael Bender of the Mercury Policy Project. "The real message is that certain segments of the population should limit their intake of certain kinds of fish." Long-lived predatory ocean fish such as tuna, swordfish and shark, as well as several kinds of freshwater fish in eastern North America have been found to contain high levels of mercury.

The focus should really be on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency that is supposed to keep tabs on the foodstuffs offered by the fishing industry, Bender said. He is very concerned that the FDA is not paying close enough attention to the important health issues relating to mercury poisoning.

Bender even suggests that the FDA has lost some of its objectivity and the attention currently being paid to EPA's part in the process is acting as a smokescreen. "There is a sense that FDA has been captured by the fishing industry," he said, "and that they are listening more to the industry that they are regulating and not to the science. The focus on EPA is a diversion and casts a large shadow on what FDA is doing."

Belliveau of NRCM maintains a similar opinion. "It is our view that FDA has not taken a strong public-health-protective position with regard to mercury pollution," he said. "They have not taken action to get high-level mercury seafood out of the marketplace. The evidence is there. Why haven't they acted?"

Bender hopes that NAS report will turn things around. "This independent panel convened by Congress has done their job," said Bender. "It is finally time to move on."

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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National Academy of Sciences
   •report on the mercury health risks
Sen. Patrick Leahy
Natural Resources Council of Maine
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Clean Air Network
Edison Electric Institute
Natural Resources Defense Council
Mercury Policy Project
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

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