The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday, Dec. 5:

As the Bush administration tries once again surreptitiously to gut the Clean Air Act, it cannot fool Americans on these two points:

1. If you have to warn people about a food, something’s wrong with it.

2. A poison is still a poison, even if you change the label.

Forty-five states have strict warnings about how much fish people should eat from fresh and coastal waters. Why? Because the fish contain dangerous levels of mercury.

Mercury can cause brain damage, particularly in babies and children under 6. One in 12 women has absorbed enough mercury to pose a threat to a developing fetus.

Mercury also is linked to palsies, seizures, learning problems and structural abnormalities. In adults, it can bring on cardiovascular problems.

It’s a toxin on par with lead and asbestos.

Just as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was set to make progress regulating this serious threat to children’s health, the Bush administration wants to downgrade mercury’s status and let industry dictate its cleanup.

About a third of mercury pollution comes from the smokestacks of the nation’s coal-fired power plants. A mere teaspoon falling from the sky can befoul a modest-size lake. On the lake’s bottom, a food chain begins: Bacteria convert mercury into its more toxic form, methylmercury. That’s absorbed by algae, which are eaten by worms, which are eaten by fish, which are eaten by humans – who are poisoned.

In 2000 – 10 years after the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments – a federal judge ordered the EPA to stop stalling and regulate power-plant mercury pollution. Recently, the EPA floated a well-researched standard that would reduce mercury by 90 percent in three years. Industry panicked.

So, just before the court’s deadline this month, the Bush administration came up with a market-based, cap-and-trade scheme favored by industry, particularly by several large Bush campaign contributors. Not coincidentally, the idea mirrors Bush’s Clear Skies proposal, which is stalled in Congress.

This proposal would relabel mercury as a run-of-the-mill pollutant, instead of the hazard it is. It reduces mercury by only 30 percent and takes until 2018 to get rid of it.

All without assuring public safety. The draft of the rule admits: “The overall cap level may not eliminate the risk of unacceptable adverse health effects of mercury emissions.”

That’s especially true where mercury is concentrated – places such as Pennsylvania, which ranks third nationally in mercury pollution from power-plant emissions.

Americans should demand that their government treat mercury as the health threat it is. As with arsenic, they don’t want mercury in their water. The Bush administration should protect public health, not private industry.

Copy the Story Link