Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Proof that John Kerry is Unfit for Command -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: puborectalis who wrote (19539)	10/17/2004 12:47:28 AM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 27181

Reel Danger: Power Plant Mercury Pollution and the Fish We Eat U.S. PIRG Education Fund August 2004 Executive Summary Mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources are making the fish in our lakes, rivers, and streams unsafe to eat. Coal-fired power plants are by far the nation’s largest unregulated source of mercury emissions, contributing 41 percent of all U.S. mercury emissions. The mercury deposits in soil and surface waters, where bacteria convert it to a highly toxic form of mercury that bioaccumulates in fish, including popular sport and commercial fish. This report analyzes new data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine the extent to which fish in the nation’s lakes are contaminated with mercury. Mercury is a neurotoxin that is particularly damaging to the developing brain. In early 2004, EPA scientists estimated that one in six women of childbearing age in the U.S. has levels of mercury in her blood that are sufficiently high to put 630,000 of the four million babies born each year at risk of learning disabilities, developmental delays, and problems with fine motor coordination, among other problems. Mercury can affect multiple organ systems, including the nervous system, heart, and immune system, throughout an individual’s lifespan. This report analyzes the first available data from EPA’s ongoing National Study of Chemical Residues in Lake Fish Tissue, a four-year study of 268 chemicals in fish from a representative sample of 500 lakes and reservoirs in the continental U.S. We analyze the first two years of EPA’s quality-assured data, which includes fish from 260 lakes and reservoirs collected in 1999-2000 and 2001. In general, EPA collected two composite samples of one predator fish species and one bottom-dwelling fish species at each lake, for a total of 520 composite samples, or 2,547 fish. Key findings include the following: • All of the fish samples were contaminated with mercury. • Fifty-five (55) percent of the fish samples were contaminated with mercury at levels that exceed EPA’s "safe" limit for women of average weight who eat fish twice a week. In 29 states, mercury levels in at least half of the fish samples exceeded this limit. • Seventy-six (76) percent of the fish samples exceeded the safe mercury limit for children of average weight under age three who eat fish twice a week; 63 percent of fish samples exceeded the limit for children ages three to five years; and 47 percent of the fish samples exceeded the limit for children six to eight years. • Predator fish, or fish at the top of the aquatic food chain, had the highest average levels of mercury. Smallmouth bass, walleye, largemouth bass, lake trout, and Northern pike had the highest average mercury concentrations. • Eighty (80) percent of the predator fish samples contained mercury levels exceeding EPA’s safe limit for women. In 18 states, 100 percent of the predator fish samples exceeded this limit. Mercury pollution is pervasive in the nation’s lakes. Every fish sample EPA tested was contaminated with mercury, and the majority of the fish samples were contaminated with mercury at levels that could pose a public health risk. The results underscore the need to reduce mercury emissions to the greatest extent possible, as fast as possible. Other industrial sources have reduced their mercury emissions by more than 90 percent within a few short Reel Danger years, but power plants continue to emit unlimited amounts of mercury into the air. In January 2004, the Bush administration issued a severely flawed proposal for regulating mercury from power plants. EPA’s proposal, which falls far short of what the Clean Air Act requires, would delay even modest reductions in mercury emissions from power plants until after 2025. In contrast, the Clean Air Act calls for the maximum achievable reductions by 2008. To reduce mercury levels in fish and protect public health, the Bush administration should reverse course and require coal-fired power plants to reduce mercury emissions by at least 90 percent by 2008.