This is good strategy. The other thing that drew my attention was the
recent Register story about lead-paint exposure of Latino children. It's
the same story for black children, and indeed any children living in old
and deteriorating low-rent housing. This is an environmental justice
issue, as well as an economic justice issue. You can't attract low-wage
labor without low-rent housing, except somebody always has to pick up the
rest of the tab, someday. Same with polllution.
So, is there a way to develop a common strategy around issues that tie in
the health and future of our children with the health of our environment
and the health of our economy?
--Bill Witt
> Tarah,
>
> I think the Chapter should develop a FACT Sheet and educational
> publication about the danger of mercury and the need in Iowa to track this
> pollution.
>
> I will be happy to help with this development as a volunteer.
> And I think I can raise the money to publish the material when it is
> completed.
>
> At the Governor's Water Summit, the water expert mentioned mercury in one
> sentence of her presentation saying, if I remember right, "we are
> beginning to measure mercury levels in some waters."
>
> Let's take the mercury bull by the horns and be proactive.
>
> Chris Bedford
> [log in to unmask]
> 515-283-0777
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tarah Heinzen [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thu 12/11/2003 5:33 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Cc:
> Subject: FW: Bush Administration Contradicts Itself about Mercury
>
>
>
> 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
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 2:07 PM
> To: [log in to unmask];
> [log in to unmask];
> [log in to unmask];
> [log in to unmask]
> 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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