Bush Administration Punts on Cutting Toxic Mercury Emissions

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> Tue, 03 Aug 2004 14:08:26 GMT

> " BushGreenwatch " <info

 

> Bush Administration Punts on Cutting Toxic

> Mercury Emissions

>

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> BUSHGREENWATCH

> Tracking the Bush Administration's Environmental

> Misdeeds

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>

> August 3, 2004

>

> BUSH ADMINISTRATION PUNTS ON CUTTING TOXIC MERCURY

> EMISSIONS

>

> Contamination of ocean fish such as tuna, with toxic

> mercury

> from coal-fired power plants, has received wide

> publicity in

> recent months. But now a new report by the U.S.

> Public Research

> Group Education Fund (PIRG) shows that fish in

> America's lakes,

> rivers, and streams are also contaminated with

> mercury, putting

> at risk sport and subsistence fishermen and their

> families.

>

> Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that can cause

> learning

> disabilities, developmental delays, and problems

> with fine motor

> coordination. Mercury can also affect multiple organ

> systems,

> including the heart, immune system, and the nervous

> system over

> a lifetime.

>

> PIRG analyzed data collected by the Environmental

> Protection

> Agency (EPA), which between 1999 and 2001 tested

> fish for toxic

> mercury in a representative sample of 260 lakes and

> reservoirs

> in the U.S. EPA's testing revealed that every fish

> sample taken

> was contaminated with mercury, and most of the

> samples were

> contained at levels that could pose a risk to public

> health. [1]

>

> Fifty-five percent of the fish samples were

> contaminated at

> levels exceeding EPA's " safe " limit for women of

> average weight

> who eat fish twice a week. Seventy-six percent of

> the samples

> exceeded the safe limit for children under three who

> eat fish

> twice a week.

>

> Most heavily contaminated were predator fish like

> bass, walleye,

> lake trout, and Northern pike, with 80 percent of

> predator fish

> samples exceeding EPA's safe limit for women. In 18

> states, 100

> percent of the predator samples exceeded this limit.

> [2]

>

> President Bush's plan to reduce toxic mercury

> emissions from

> power plants would utterly fail to protect public

> health for the

> next 20 years. Unveiled in January, the President's

> proposal

> would put off even modest reductions until 2025,

> even though the

> Clean Air Act calls for maximum possible reductions

> by 2008. [3]

>

>

> In the 2004 Presidential election, the nation's

> electric

> utilities raised $447,000 in PAC and individual

> campaign

> contributions for George W. Bush, compared to

> $65,000 for

> Democratic candidate Al Gore. In fact, President

> Bush raised

> more money from electric utilities in two years than

> any other

> candidate for federal office raised cumulatively

> over the past

> 10 years. [4]

>

> ###

>

> SOURCES:

> [1] " Reel Danger: Power Plant Mercury Pollution and

> the Fish We

> Eat, " U.S. PIRG Education Fund.

> [2] Ibid.

> [3] Ibid.

> [4] Center for Responsive Politics press release,

> http://ga3.org/ct/N1zkGk91ZjTZ/.

>

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