Mercury is bad for you:
Mercury is one of those unambiguous poisons. It’s a known nerve toxin and a cause of birth defects. Minnesota and 40 other states now have to warn anglers and their families against eating too much fish because of mercury concentrated in their fillets. Especially at risk of harm are women of child-bearing age, among whom one in 12 is estimated to have dangerous levels of mercury in her body.
And the Bush administration is removing important Clinton era controls to protect us from Mercury in the environment and in our food.
More on this story over at Cursor.org. Because Cursor.org still doesn’t have permalinks, I’m forced to quote their entire post, rather than just sending you over there:
The Washington Post reports that an EPA-headed task force that was set to recommend “rules that within three years would force every coal-fired power plant in the country to reduce emissions of mercury,” was “abruptly disbanded” last April.
The Post says the policy turnabout was engineered by Jeffrey Holmstead, the EPA’s senior air quality official who previously served as an adjunct scholar for Citizens for the Environment, an organization formed in 1990 as a project of “corporate front group,” Citizens for a Sound Economy. For more on Holmstead, scroll down to ‘The Clean Air Wake.’
Of all the “administration’s retreats on controlling air pollution,” editorialized the Star Tribune, “its proposed new rules on mercury may prove to be the most cynical.”
