Fwd: Columbus Dispatch article yesterday about mercury in US consumer products

[Guest guest]

milagro78 wrote: Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:04:17 -0000

To: gillottefamily@..., monica_jank@...,

milagro78@...

Subject: Fwd: Columbus Dispatch article yesterday about mercury in US consumer

products

http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/06/10

/z-apoh_mercury_crackdown_061.ART_ART_06-10-07_B7_Q66VSO4.html

ACTIONS IN OHIO, OTHER STATES

Mercury bans affecting consumer products

Sunday, June 10, 2007 3:57 AM

By Carr Smyth

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Schools are purging old thermometer supplies. The future of light-up

shoes is on the rocks. And states are questioning America's need for

blinking jewelry, flashing greeting cards and twinkling Christmas

lights, all containing toxic mercury.

Amid the consumer-products scramble, however, coal-fired power plants

responsible for the bulk of the mercury still circulating into the

nation's air have been given two deadlines, in 2010 and 2018, to

reduce their mercury emissions by 70 percent.

Since 1990, as a national crackdown has reduced overall mercury

emissions by half, emissions by coal-burning power plants have

remained relatively constant, falling from 51 tons in 1990 to 48 tons

in 1999 nationwide, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

statistics.

In that same period, mercury coming from medical waste incinerators

and city-run trash-burning power plants has been almost eliminated

through new regulations, and non-utility polluters have reduced the

mercury they emit by about 5 tons, data show.

No plant can safely emit more than 5 pounds of mercury a day, or less

than a ton year, EPA guidelines say. And individual states are

subject to federal caps that might require even lower mercury

emissions from individual plants to reach national goals.

" There's nothing wrong with taking these mercury-containing products

off the market, " said Sandy Buchanan, director of the consumer

watchdog group Ohio Citizen Action. " If you want the low-hanging

fruit, sure, go ahead, but 87 percent of the tree (coming from waste

combustion and coal burning) is left standing. "

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that falls into water when released

and ends up in the food chain. If a woman eats mercury-tainted fish

while pregnant or nursing, it can cause brain damage in her children.

In dozens of states, lawmakers have outlawed an array of consumer

products containing mercury, including figurines, practical-joke

supplies and other toys, games, greeting cards, holiday ornaments and

yard statues, candles, and jewelry, footwear and other apparel. In

Ohio such a ban starts in April.

Laws across the country also have targeted the schoolhouse mercury

thermometers, mercury switches in automobiles, dental fillings, and

mercury used in medical implants and vaccines.

Civil penalties can range from less than $100 to $25,000.

All told, more than 200 bills on mercury have been introduced in at

least 30 state legislatures since 2000, most involving consumer

products, according to the bipartisan National Conference of State

Legislatures.

Compliance deadlines have been extended in many states for consumer

products whose only mercury is in the button-cell battery required to

operate them, because the battery industry has imposed its own

deadline of 2011 for eliminating the mercury those contain.

Mark Kohorst, senior manager for environment, health and safety at

the American Electrical Manufacturers Association that represents

battery-makers, said button batteries have been carved out of state

bans because no workable alternative has been invented.

" People with hearing aids, watches -- any number of other consumer

products -- would be in trouble, " he said.

Millett, a spokesman for the U.S. EPA, concedes that consumer

products are not causing the worst of the nation's mercury problems.

But he said controlling them is still important.

" The thought behind the consumer-products stuff is the more you move

over to alternatives and the less mercury you have out there, the

less we're exposed to, " he said. " There you have a situation where a

little bit in a lot of things adds up to a lot. "

For additional health information, visit OhioHealth

--- End forwarded message ---

---------------------------------

Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links.