Iowa is one of only 6 states that doesn't have a program to educate the
public about the risks of eating mercury contaminated fish, and our reliance
on coal means this will be a growing public health threat here and
elsewhere...

tarah

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Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 2:07 PM
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Subject: Bush Administration Contradicts Itself about Mercury


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 2003

CONTACT:
Wendy Balazik, 202-675-2383

BUSH ADMINISTRATION CONTRADICTS ITSELF
While Dismantling Mercury Protections, Administration Cautions Women and
Children to Reduce Fish Consumption

Washington, DC- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today expanded health warnings about
the toxic effects of eating mercury-tainted fish in a draft advisory set to
be finalized early next year.  This comes on the heels of the Bush
administration's recent sweeping changes that would make it easier for
polluters to avoid cleaning up mercury.

Today's action by the FDA and EPA increased the number of fish species with
unsafe levels of mercury and expanded the list of people who are most hurt
by mercury, adding children, nursing mothers and women who may become
pregnant.

"It is astonishing that while the Bush administration is warning people
about increased health threats from eating mercury-laden fish, it is
weakening the very clean air protections that would reduce mercury
pollution," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club's executive director.  "Just last
week, the Bush administration announced a plan to loosen protections for
mercury pollution in our air; and today, two federal agencies report that
more fish than ever have dangerous levels of mercury.   We call on the Bush
administration to enforce clean air laws that are on the books and require
power plants to install new technology to control this dangerous
pollutant."

Mercury is a powerful toxin that causes learning and developmental
disabilities in children.  Women of childbearing age and people who
regularly and frequently eat highly contaminated fish, or even large
amounts of moderately contaminated fish, are most likely to be at risk from
mercury exposure.  Children exposed in the womb or after birth, subsistence
fisherman and certain Native American populations are at risk.

Forty-four states have warned the public to limit consumption of fish from
mercury-contaminated lakes and rivers.  Mercury works its way up the
aquatic food chain and into the human body in a toxic form. The threat is
especially great to the offspring of women who have high levels of mercury
-- hence the advisories that urge women of child-bearing age and children
reduce the consumption of some species of fish and avoid others completely.
One of every dozen of U.S. women of childbearing age has mercury in their
bodies at levels that could threaten their unborn children.

Airborne deposits account for the bulk of mercury, which occurs naturally
in coal and rises out of it as it burns. Regulation has been sought under
the 1990 Clean Air Act, with a December 15 deadline set for rule-making.
The EPA seemed poised to order a 90 percent cutback in mercury emitted from
coal-powered plants by 2008. Instead, the long-term goal will be a 70
percent reduction by 2018, the EPA said last week.  By one estimate, that
means 300 more tons of mercury coming down with the rain over the next 15
years.  The EPA's decision to back off of its more stringent pollution
control standards is an unacceptable concession to wealthy power companies
that puts the public's health at risk, Pope said.

# # #

Wendy Balazik
Media Coordinator
Sierra Club
Phone:  202-675-2383
Fax:  202-547-6009

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