|
Letters to the editor
Mercury poisoning is a big threat
I'm a mercury
poisoning survivor. The only possible exposure was due to eating an
almost steady diet of striped bass caught off the coast of southern
Maine for a couple summer months a few years ago.
I also had
often dined on the larger predator fish like grouper the winter before
in Florida. Mercury in the human body attacks the nervous system and
heads for the major organs — heart, liver, brain, etc. — where it
accumulates. I was lucky to have discovered the high level of mercury in
a blood test during an annual check up. (My doctor first thought it was
Lyme disease, but tests ruled that out.)
The only
outward symptom I now have is a tremor in the left hand. But the
tiredness, the aching and other flu-like symptoms that went on for
months are nothing compared to the damage done to fetuses, whose mothers
innocently ingested tuna, swordfish and other large predator fish,
whether from ocean or lake or river.
Mercury
pollution from power plants has a direct impact on our families. There
is no uncertainty about the danger to the environment, and to humans,
emanating from power plant mercury pollution. Smokestacks spew mercury
pollution into the air, where it rains and snows down into our
waterways, accumulating in fish. People eating contaminated fish are
then exposed to mercury.
The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 8 percent of women of
childbearing age in the United States have mercury levels in their blood
that are unsafe. The EPA itself reports that 630,000 infants are born
annually who are at risk for learning disabilities. Mercury is a toxic
metal that can cause severe neurological and developmental problems in
unborn fetuses and young children. The EPA and 43 states have now issued
advisories warning people, especially women and children, to avoid or
limit eating local fish because of mercury.
This table
shows the advisories that are in effect where you live:
www.moveon.org/mercury/table.pdf (source: Clear the Air coalition).
This is a scandalous attempt by the Bush administration to protect its
friends in the energy industry at the expense of our children's health.
The Bush
administration proposes to not regulate mercury as a dangerous poison,
but instead to allow power plants to emit mercury pollution 10 years
longer than is necessary, until 2018. The EPA was initially planning to
require power plants to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2008.
I'd like to
urge readers to contact the EPA regarding the proposed delay of
scheduled cleanup of toxic mercury by over 10 years. The cleanup should
begin ASAP. contact the EPA at: Environmental Protection Agency, Ariel
Rios Building, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C., 20460,
or by phone at (202) 272-0167.
I'd also like
to urge everybody to have a blood test that shows heavy metal
accumulations.
Lizzy Poole
Summerland Key
|
