As the new home of WashPIRG's environmental work, Environment Washington can be contacted regarding this news release.
Seattle, Wash.—The
Washington chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a national public
health advocacy organization, and Washington Public Interest Research Group
(WashPIRG), spoke out today against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
proposed mercury rule that threatens the health of children in Washington state
and across the country.
The Environmental Protection
Agency must finalize rules to reduce mercury emissions from their largest industrial
source—coal and oil power plants—by December 2004. Unfortunately,
in December 2003, EPA proposed a mercury plan that will expose our children
to far more mercury, for far longer than would be permitted under stronger rules
that EPA has said are both achievable and cost-effective. Under the proposed
rule, reduction of mercury emissions from power plants would be delayed until
2020 or later. EPA is accepting public comments until mid-April about its proposal.
"EPA’s proposed
rule puts our children’s health on the line just to save energy companies
a few cents," said L.B. Sandy Rock, MD, MPH, chair of WPSR’s Environment
& Health Committee. "With this ruling, the Bush administration continues
to undermine the environmental efforts of the past four decades. We need stronger
regulations to curb mercury emissions at their sources, not weaker. And we need
improved federal fish consumption guidance and state monitoring to reduce exposures
to this persistent environmental toxic substance that threatens the nervous
systems of our children."
"According to EPA,
we have the technology today to eliminate 90 percent of mercury pollution from
power plant emissions, but their proposed plan falls far short of those reductions,"
said Aisling Kerins, WashPIRG field organizer. "Exposing hundreds of thousands
of children to more mercury than we have to during their critical developing
years is outrageous."
Under the Clean Air Act,
toxic substances like mercury must be controlled using the "maximum achievable
control technologies" (MACT) standard, which requires that every power
plant reduce emissions at least as much as has been achieved by the best performing
plants. Under the MACT standard, EPA estimated two years ago that power plants
could cut 90 percent of mercury from power plants using existing technologies,
reducing mercury emissions to roughly 5 tons per year by 2008. Unfortunately
EPA is now proposing to regulate mercury as a non-toxic pollutant, requiring
far less stringent controls.
Kerins also expressed dismay
at federal setbacks on curbing mercury emissions—at a time when Washington
State has made progress in mercury reduction through passage of the Mercury
Reduction and Education Act of 2003. "Toxic mercury pollution threatens
our children’s ability to think and learn—that may be a price EPA
is willing to pay to appease some energy companies but the citizens of Washington
won’t stand for it. We demand a real solution to mercury pollution now."
Last year, the Washington State legislature passed a new mercury law, which
phases out mercury in consumer and health care products.
Today’s local experts
and organizations including Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility
and WashPIRG, are formally kicking off local opposition to the new rule and
urging the public to weigh in and demand that EPA go back to the drawing board
to ensure that the toxic mercury pollution that threatens Washington’s
children is reduced as much as possible, as quickly as possible. The Washington
State Department of Public Health (DOH) has issued advisories for mercury in
fish from several of the state’s lakes and rivers, including Lake Roosevelt
and the Duwamish River. A statewide advisory for smallmouth and largemouth bass
was recently issued with warnings for pregnant women and young children. The
Washington DOH also recommends that children, infants and women of child-bearing
age, who are particularly vulnerable to mercury exposure, refrain from eating
some types of fish, including swordfish, king mackerel and tuna steaks, from
any source due to its high mercury content.
Mercury can harm fetal development
and impair children’s cognitive growth, affecting motor skills, learning
capacity, and memory, along with other symptoms of neurological damage. Last
year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly 8 percent
of women of childbearing age—literally millions of American women—have
blood mercury concentrations higher than the level considered safe by the EPA.
A new analysis made public by EPA scientists indicates that as many as 630,000
children annually may be overexposed by the time they are born.
"Many of the kids in
Washington born today are going to be in high-school or college before the EPA
gets serious about reducing mercury pollution from power plants," Dr. Rock
said, "We cannot allow 15 more years of mercury pollution to steal our
children’s future."
