Mercury Poisoning: It's Not Just Fish...
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 10. 8.06
"It is clear to me that the mercury story is much more complex than scientists initially thought," says Jörg Feldmann, an environmental chemist at Aberdeen University, UK. The more places scientists look for mercury, the more they find. Most people think that fish is responsible for bringing mercury into the food chain (to fish-eating birds and so on), but the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) published a study based on 65 other studies that shows that mercury is affecting more species than we might think, and the impacts are very negative, especially when added to habitat destruction, climate change, etc.
The good news is, we can do something:
[Catherine] Bowes and the report authors called on federal government to mandate coal-powered power stations — a major source of mercury in the environment — to install mercury filtration devices. "Our federal government is not doing enough," says Bowes. In US states where these measures have been introduced, for example Florida, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, mercury levels in wildlife dropped dramatically: in just a few years, rather than the predicted decades.
We should also make sure that fluorescent light are recycled, and that it is easy to do so. They generally release less mercury in the environment than incandescent (see this), but it is not a reason to send them to landfills. The best way to do things would probably to pay people for bringing back the fluorescents, like with beer bottles. ::Mercury survey highlights contamination (paid registration required)
I'm old enough to remember the governments push to remove lead from gasolene. At that time doctors were finding high amounts of it in children's blood. A few years after it was removed, doctors started to see great improvements in the lessening of lead in their blood. What a wonderful encouragement.
Now. Here is a real oldie. I remember my father saving all our burned out incandescent bulbs. After he got a bunch he would take them to the electric light company where he could trade them for new free ones. The idea there was to get more people to electrolize their homes and use more electric lamps than the old gas lamps.
Why can't we put our old flourescent bulbs in our glass and plastic recycling pails?
While coal burning power plants are a large source of mercury pollution, they are not the only large mercury emitting facilities in the US. There are eight chlorine plants in the US that still use mercury in their production, despite the availability of newer, cleaner technology.
Take Wisconsin for instance. Governor Doyle has recently proposed a plan to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent from coal-fired power plants; however, the biggest single source of mercury in the state is a chlorine plant operated by ERCO Worldwide. Doyle’s rule would allow ERCO’s plant to continue emitting over a thousand pounds of mercury every year.
Similarly, West Virginia has recently ordered PPG Industries to reduce its emissions of mercury into the Ohio River from its chlorine plant. PPG must now reduce the 36 pounds of mercury it emitted into the river in 2004, but is allowed to continue emitting over 1,200 pounds of mercury into the air.
Oceana, a nonprofit working to protect the oceans, is working to convince these last eight chlorine plants to switch to the new technology that 90 percent of the industry already uses. Switching to mercury free technology is a common sense approach with tremendous benefits. If you want to know more about the mercury emitting chlorine plants and the efforts to convert them, visit their website.
"Doyle’s rule would allow ERCO’s plant to continue emitting over a thousand pounds of mercury every year."
To put that in a different perspective, 1000 lbs. of mercury by volume is only 1.17 cubic feet, roughly, or about 33 litres. Over an entire year, that's not much at all for a large industrial bulk chemical process operation.
"PPG must now reduce the 36 pounds of mercury it emitted into the river in 2004"
36 lbs.= 1.2 litres per year!
"but is allowed to continue emitting over 1,200 pounds of mercury into the air."
... or 1.4 cubic feet, by volume -- again, over an entire year.
I'd say that your figure of 33lbs has to be put into some sort of context.
I note the compound dimethylmercury, a neurotoxic compound of mercury, where a few microlitres (thousandths of a litre) splashed on a latex glove can cause death. I also note that mercury has a tendancy to accumulate in the body of organisms as it travels up the food chain.
Lastly, mercury is at its most toxic when inhaled. Gastrointestinal exposure has a low rate of absorbtion for elemental mercury, but it very readily absorbed through the lungs.
So the idea that a company is vapourising 33lbs of mercury per annum into the air does bother me. 1.2 litres. I wonder, if it was plutonium, would saying "it's only 33lbs of plutonium powder per annum" make you feel any better? We're not talking about flouride here, we're talking about a powerful neurotoxic that the human body cannot remove fromt he brain.
J.C.Sr - Your Nov. 2cnd post states that the WV DEP has told the PPG plant to reduce its mercury dumping into the river. In fact the WV DEP has now proposed changes that would allow the Natrium PPG plant to INCREASE its mercury dumping into the Ohio River by 4 fold. The public comment period is still open. Everyone in America should write the WV DEP and Governor Machin about this travesty.