News Coverage
Protect unborn from mercury
Published March 31, 2004
Mercury pollution has become so widespread in the United States that the federal government is warning people to monitor their fish intake.
Yet at the same time, the Bush administration is setting policies that all but guarantee the nation's mercury pollution problem will get worse before it gets better.
Imagine: The government warning people that eating fish more than twice a week might be unhealthy.
The warning should resonate like a siren in south Louisiana, where eating seafood during the Lenten season isn't merely a matter of religious devotion, but of widespread, secular, cultural habit.
The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently advised certain groups of Americans to avoid entirely some types of fish and to monitor carefully other kinds of fish they eat.
The advisory group includes women who might become pregnant, pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children. Fish to be avoided entirely include shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. The federal government also warned against high-risk groups eating white canned tuna, one of the nation's most popular foods.
The FDA and EPA recommended limiting seafood consumption to 12 ounces, or about two meals, per week. In addition, Americans were cautioned against eating fresh fish caught by family and friends unless the water of origin is known to be safe.
In Louisiana, 30 bodies of water have been placed on the official mercury advisory list. Women of childbearing age and children younger than 7 are told not to eat largemouth bass, white bass, freshwater drum, flathead catfish, bowfin and other species from many popular Louisiana fishing spots.
The source of mercury pollution is no mystery. The EPA acknowledges that coal-fired power plants are the largest single source of mercury pollution released into the air. Coal-fired power plants release 48 tons of mercury into the air each year, and that air pollution can contaminate bodies of water when it rains.
Federal policy put in place before President Bush took office mandated the reduction of coal-fired power plant pollution by 90 percent by 2008.
But the agency that warns Americans to be cautious of the fish they eat because of mercury pollution is the same agency that is easing off on enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
After the energy industry contributed $40 million to Republican election campaigns, including $1.3 million directly to Bush, the EPA proposed weaker rules calling for a 70 percent reduction in power plant mercury pollution by 2018.
According to the Los Angeles Times, after industry representatives met in secret with Vice President Dick Cheney, the Bush administration took entire paragraphs of language verbatim from industry advocates when wording its proposed mercury rule, published in the Federal Register in December.
The policy of knowingly allowing larger levels of pollution that endanger the unborn flies in the face of other recent White House rhetoric.
Just last week, Bush applauded Congress for passing the new Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which makes harm to a fetus a federal crime separate from harm to the mother.
"Pregnant women who have been harmed by violence, and their families, know that there are two victims -- the mother and the unborn child -- and both victims should be protected by federal law," Bush said in vowing to sign the legislation.
Everyone also knows that mercury pollution is causing harm to American children, and Bush's energy policy is ensuring higher levels of mercury pollution further into the future.