Mercury and YOU!!!
Mercury is a dangerous toxic metal that can cause severe neurological and developmental problems in fetuses and very young children whose brains are still developing. People are exposed to mercury mainly by eating fish. The EPA and forty-three states have now issued advisories warning people, especially women and children, to avoid or limit eating local fish because of mercury. But even with these warnings, the EPA's scientists estimate that 1 out of 6 U.S. women of childbearing age has levels of mercury in her blood that are unsafe for developing fetuses. This means that as many as 630,000 children are born every single year at risk of neurological problems due to mercury exposure.

The best way to protect women and children from mercury is to eliminate it from its largest source: power plants. Smokestacks spew mercury pollution into the air, where it rains and snows down into our waterways, accumulating in fish and making them unsafe to eat. Amazingly, power plants have yet to be regulated for mercury pollution under federal clean air standards, and the electric and coal industries are pressing hard to avoid limiting their mercury emissions.

After years of work by us and other public health advocates, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now under a deadline to reduce the dangers of mercury from power plants. Two years ago, the EPA's own scientists said current technologies could achieve a 90 percent reduction of mercury from power plants. But last December, the EPA put forward a weak proposal that would, in effect, treat power plant mercury emissions as non-toxic air pollution. The Bush administration's plan allows power plants to emit six to seven times more mercury over the next decade than they would be able to under the Clean Air Act. Some facilities would even be allowed to continue polluting completely unabated simply by purchasing pollution "credits."

In March, EPA Administrator Leavitt - after an immense public outcry about the Bush administration's inadequate proposal for addressing power plant emissions of mercury - announced that the EPA would begin studying options for strengthening the mercury proposal. But since that time, we have not heard a thing from the EPA on what its plans are for this proposal. It seems that we have not yet succeeded in getting the EPA to strengthen its mercury proposal,and that Congressional oversight is needed.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to ensure that the Bush administration fully complies with the Clean Air Act and reduces mercury pollution. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.

To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=748&id4=ES