Mercury and Toxic Pollution Hall of Shame: Meet The Members of Congress That 
Sided With Corporate Polluters Over Children and Your Health
Posted February 24, 2011 in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, U.S. 
Law and Policy
Tags:
2011budget, cleanairact, mercury, pnp
 
For the first time in the forty-year history of the Clean Air Act, a majority of 
the House of Representatives has voted to block EPA from implementing and 
enforcing standards to sharply reduce mercury and other toxic air emissions from 
a polluting industry.
In one of a long list of irresponsible amendments to last week's Republican 
budget, nearly all Republicans and a small group of Democrats voted to block EPA 
standards to reduce mercury, arsenic, lead, PCBs, dioxins and furans, and heavy 
metals from cement plants.
Mercury and lead both are dangerous neurotoxins – brain poisons – that harm the 
developing brains of children and fetuses. Dioxins are known human carcinogens 
linked to birth defects, reproductive abnormalities, and lung and breast cancer. 
Arsenic is a known human carcinogen linked to lung and kidney cancer and PCBs 
are probable human carcinogens linked to liver cancer.
On February 17th, in a 250-177 vote, the House of Representatives approved an 
amendment by Rep. John Carter (R-TX) to deny any funds to EPA to “implement, 
administer or enforce” mercury and other toxic air pollution standards for all 
cement plants in the country.
The EPA standards [pdf] that the House voted to block would reduce cement 
plants’ mercury emissions nationwide by 16,600 pounds [pdf], a 92 percent 
reduction from projected 2013 emission levels.
Most of the remaining toxic pollutants are metals or organics that are reduced 
by controlling particulate matter and hydrocarbons, respectively. The EPA 
standards would further reduce particulate matter by 11,500 tons annually, a 92% 
reduction, and total hydrocarbons by 10,600 tons annually, an 83% 
reduction [pdf].
Were these toxic pollution safeguards allowed to take effect, EPA projects that 
starting in 2013 and every year thereafter, the standards would avoid: up to 
2,500 premature deaths; 1,500 heart attacks; 17,000 cases of aggravated asthma; 
32,000 cases of upper and lower respiratory symptoms; and 130,000 days when 
people would have missed miss work [pdf].
Instead, the following members of Congress chose to join the mercury and toxic 
pollution hall of shame by blocking EPA from carrying out and enforcing toxic 
air pollution standards. These members sided with corporate polluters over 
America’s children, health and environment.
).
Iowa: King (R) and Latham (R).
Special gratitude is owed the members who voted against the pernicious Carter 
amendment and stood up for America’s children and public health, EPA, and the 
Rule of Law. This is especially true of the courageous seven Republicans who 
broke with their caucus and voted against the irresponsible Carter amendment: 
Bass (NH), Johnson (IL), Lance, (NJ), LoBiondo (NJ), Smith (NJ), Wolf (VA), and 
Young (FL). (This gratitude must be tempered, however, by pointing out that all 
seven of these Republicans voted for passage of the final Republican budget, 
meaning that they ended up voting for the destructive Carter amendment in the 
final analysis anyway.)
The members supporting the dirty air amendment have anointed themselves into a 
toxic hall of shame of their own creation. History should not judge this 
distinction kindly.
 
 
Best,
 
 
John Walke
Natural Resources Defense Council
1200 New York Avenue, NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 289-2406 (W)
(703) 357-5438 (M)
 
Read my blog on clean air policy and law at 
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jwalke/.
 
__._,_.___
Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic 
Messages in this topic (1) 

Recent Activity: 
Visit Your Group 
 
Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use
. 

__,_._,___


      

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]

Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information:
http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp

Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship
e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's
latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent
editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/