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FYI:  "Mercury in Fish" PBS Broadcast


 Mercury in Fish
    NOW



    PBS Airdate: Friday January 21, 2005, at 9:00 p.m. on PBS.
    (Check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html.)


    In America, a staggering one-in-six children born every year have
been exposed to mercury levels so high that they are at risk for
learning disabilities and cognitive impairment. That type of mercury
exposure is caused by eating certain kinds of fish, which contain high
levels of the toxin from both natural and man-made sources such as
emissions from coal-fired power plants. One government analysis shows
that 630,000 children each year are exposed to potentially unsafe
mercury levels in the womb. If the government and its scientists know
about the mercury problem, why do so many people continue to be
poisoned? On Friday, January 21, 2005 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local
listings), NOW's David Brancaccio reports on the dangers of mercury in
our food and examines how the government is falling short in protecting
consumers. The broadcast includes an interview with environmentalist
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a senior attorney for the Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC), who is credited with leading the clean-up of the
Hudson River. Recently, Kennedy was tested for mercury and learned that
his blood level was nearly double the EPA's safe limit. "The
environmentalists are dismissed as tree huggers," says Kennedy. "But
there's nothing radical about clean air and clean water for our
children."





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Kimberly M. Jones
EPA Region 7
Environmental Justice Program
901 N. 5th Street
Kansas City, KS 66101
913-551-7280