This is an interesting article about the dangers of mercury. Tarah and Neila
in our Des Moines office have been working to educate Iowans about mercury.
Be sure to note two of the final paragraphs:
"Mercury exists naturally in the environment, but levels have risen 200
percent to 500 percent since the start of industrialization two centuries
ago, primarily because of pollution from coal-fired power plants."
>>
"President Bush has proposed reducing mercury emissions 70 percent by 2018,
although an EPA analysis indicates that the cap-and-trade portion of the
plan could delay reductions until 2025. Critics say the technology exists to
achieve similar or greater reductions by 2010."
From Environmental News
28 January Scientists worry that mercury dangers mimic deadly lead. The
more scientists study mercury, the more they find subtle damage to the
brain at lower and lower levels of exposure. So many people carry
mercury contamination in their bodies, the pollutant may be impairing
the intelligence and brain functioning of the population at large. Most
at risk is the developing fetus. Scripps Howard News Service.
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail
<http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?actionŞtail&pk=CHILDMERCURY-01-
26-05> &pk=CHILDMERCURY-01-26-05
Scientists worry that mercury dangers mimic deadly lead
By JOAN LOWY
Scripps Howard News Service
26-JAN-05
Laura Pugliese believes in a healthy lifestyle. She teaches yoga, uses
organic shampoos and lotions, and eats lots of fruits and vegetables.
Last summer, Pugliese, 28, who had been trying to get pregnant, had her hair
tested for mercury, a toxic pollutant that interferes with brain development
in the fetus. The results showed the mercury level in her body was 50
percent over the Environmental Protection Agency's safety level.
"I was trying to be healthy and stay away from all those hormones and
pesticides," said Pugliese, who blames her mercury level on a high-fish,
low-meat diet. "Instead, I got mercury _ not such a good tradeoff."
Scientists have long known that people like Pugliese who eat lots of fish
tend to have higher mercury levels in their bodies, but it's only recently
that the seriousness of the public health problem has become widely
recognized.
Some scientists are calling mercury "the new lead." As with lead, the more
scientists study mercury, the more they find subtle damage to the brain at
lower and lower levels of exposure.
It also appears that so many people carry mercury contamination in their
bodies, the pollutant may be impairing the intelligence and brain
functioning of the population at large. And, as with lead, brain damage from
mercury is permanent.
Most at risk is the developing fetus. The EPA estimates that one in every
six children born in the United States _ about 630,000 children annually _
is exposed in the womb to mercury levels that exceed the current safety
level. This places children at risk for an average IQ loss of 1.5 points,
learning disabilities and other cognitive impairments.
Even that number may be an underestimate. Dr. Philippe Grandjean, an adjunct
professor at the Harvard School of Public Health who has studied the effects
of prenatal mercury exposure for nearly two decades, said the EPA should
consider cutting in half the amount of mercury it estimates a person can
safely ingest each day.
Recent, more sophisticated analyses of data from a major mercury study in
the Faroe Islands of the North Atlantic show that significantly lower levels
of maternal exposure to mercury than was previously understood can cause
unsafe mercury concentrations in the fetus. The Faroes study was the primary
basis for the EPA's current safety level.
"The message to EPA is you used the wrong number ... the number is only half
as high," said Grandjean, who led the Faroes study. "Now shouldn't you go
back and reconsider your reference dose?"
Other scientists, including at least two members of a landmark National
Academy of Sciences committee on mercury, also said the EPA should rethink
its safety calculations.
Potential harm to the fetus isn't the only issue. Dr. Jane Hightower, who
practices internal medicine in San Francisco, has documented 350 cases of
adults and children who suffered hair loss, headaches, difficulty in
concentrating and other symptoms. Their common link was that they ate fish
frequently.
"These are people who are not deterred by the price," Hightower said. "They
do not like bones in their fish, they do not like a fishy flavor, and so
they eat the large predators. They were told fish was good for them, but
they weren't told about the contaminants."
Meanwhile, studies indicate that low doses of mercury can have harmful
cardiovascular effects in adult men.
And research by wildlife biologists with the U.S. Geological Survey has
found that some bird species suffer effects such as weakened eggs and dead
offspring when fed amounts of mercury that are as low as a tenth of the
human dietary limit.
Agency scientists are monitoring mercury-related studies as they are
published in scientific journals, but there has been no move to re-evaluate
the safety level, EPA official Denise Keehner said.
The EPA's safety limit "is the most restrictive standard in the world and
was designed to ensure that even pregnant women who regularly eat large
quantities of fish _ which is a very small number of people _ are not at
risk of consuming mercury levels that could harm their children," said David
Burney, executive director of the U.S. Tuna Foundation.
The growing evidence of risk prompted the American Medical Association to
call on the Food and Drug Administration to consider requiring stores to
post mercury warnings wherever canned tuna and other fish are sold.
The FDA and the EPA warn pregnant women and children to limit their
consumption of canned albacore tuna to no more than one can per week.
(Canned "light" tuna is generally lower in mercury and can be eaten more
frequently than albacore tuna.)
Advocacy groups such as the Environmental Working Group say their
calculations show that eating more than one can of albacore per month can be
risky for some women.
Several states - including Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Washington - also
recommend stronger limits on seafood or freshwater fish consumption than the
FDA and the EPA.
The controversy has left millions of Americans like Pugliese grappling with
the quandary of how to get the health benefits of eating fish - which are
naturally rich in omega 3 fatty oils that are good for the heart and fetal
brain development - and still protect themselves and their children from
mercury.
U.S. consumption of canned tuna has dropped 15 percent in the last few years
and shrimp has replaced tuna as the nation's No. 1 seafood. Restaurant
chains such as Morton's Steakhouse and Red Lobster have removed such
high-mercury species as swordfish from their menus.
"This is a Band-Aid approach to the real problem," said Dr. Katherine Shea,
a North Carolina pediatrician and environmental health consultant for
Physicians for Social Responsibility, "which is that the fish shouldn't be
polluted in the first place because they are such excellent sources of
important nutrients."
Mercury exists naturally in the environment, but levels have risen 200
percent to 500 percent since the start of industrialization two centuries
ago, primarily because of pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Microbes at the bottom of bodies of water transform the pollution into
methylmercury, the most toxic form of mercury, and the contaminant works its
way up the food chain. Longer-lived predatory fish like shark, swordfish and
larger species of tuna tend to have the highest mercury concentrations.
President Bush has proposed reducing mercury emissions 70 percent by 2018,
although an EPA analysis indicates that the cap-and-trade portion of the
plan could delay reductions until 2025. Critics say the technology exists to
achieve similar or greater reductions by 2010.
On the Net: www.epa.gov/mercury/
www.mercurypolicy.org/
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