NOW
t r u t h o u t | Programming Note
PBS Airdate: Friday January 21, 2005, at 9:00 p.m. on PBS.
*Check local listings at pbs.org
In America, a staggering one-in-six children born every year have been exposed to mercury levels so high that they are at risk for learning disabilities and cognitive impairment. That type of mercury exposure is caused by eating certain kinds of fish, which contain high levels of the toxin from both natural and man-made sources such as emissions from coal-fired power plants. One government analysis shows that 630,000 children each year are exposed to potentially unsafe mercury levels in the womb. If the government and its scientists know about the mercury problem, why do so many people continue to be poisoned? On Friday, January 21, 2005 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), NOW's David Brancaccio reports on the dangers of mercury in our food and examines how the government is falling short in protecting consumers. The broadcast includes an interview with environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who is credited with leading the clean-up of the Hudson River. Recently, Kennedy was tested for mercury and learned that his blood level was nearly double the EPA's safe limit. "The environmentalists are dismissed as tree huggers," says Kennedy. "But there's nothing radical about clean air and clean water for our children." |
