Mercury

[Guest guest]

I generally would not forward anything that would be what I consider to be "liberal" as everyone knows. However, the more I read about these things the more I get angry. New mercury warnings The EPA's leisurely mercury-reduction plan isn't doing enough to cut coal-fired power plant

emissions.President Bush already has plenty of reasons to accelerate his administration's leisurely approach to curbing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Perhaps a new study by California health officials will finally stir him to exhibit leadership on the issue and start pushing for major changes.The study, by the state's Department of Health Services, found that children with autism and related disorders in the San Francisco Bay area were 50 percent more likely to be born in neighborhoods with high levels of industrial pollutants - particularly mercury. The researchers warned that the results aren't definitive and warrant further study. Similar research is now under way at s Hopkins University in land.But California's findings - on top of previous studies linking mercury to mental retardation, diminished IQs

and damage to the heart, kidneys, nerves and immune system - should be enough to prompt the administration to err on the side of caution and impose stricter emissions guidelines.Under a Bush administration plan, coal-fired power plants and other factories that release mercury will have five years to cut emissions by 35 percent and roughly 15 years to cut emissions by 70 percent. Power plants are the largest man-made contributor to mercury contamination.Critics, including some career scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency, have pushed for cutting emissions by 90 percent within just a few years. Last week, California and 15 other states renewed a lawsuit against the EPA over the mercury-reduction plan. The suit was originally filed last fall but was delayed after the agency agreed to review the proposal further.A month ago, the EPA announced revisions but didn't change its most controversial aspect - a "cap and trade" system that

will enable polluting plants to buy credits from plants that meet emission targets.The National Academy of Sciences and others have argued that credit-swapping will create regional "hot zones" where emissions will remain high.Florida isn't among the plaintiffs in the suit against the EPA. It is, however, one of more than 40 states that now have advisories in effect recommending limited consumption of certain types of fish and shellfish because of mercury contamination.The Bush administration's we'll-get-to-it-eventually plan grows more unconscionable by the day. So, unfortunately, does the risk to Americans, particularly children. Copyright 2006, The Gainesville Sun. The information contained in the Sun Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Gainesville Sun. If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they wentWill There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.Ben A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loveshimself.Josh Billings

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