{"id":3158,"date":"2011-12-14T16:26:31","date_gmt":"2011-12-14T21:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=3158"},"modified":"2011-12-14T22:41:27","modified_gmt":"2011-12-15T03:41:27","slug":"america%e2%80%99s-leading-mercury-scientists-call-for-strong-air-pollution-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2011\/12\/14\/america%e2%80%99s-leading-mercury-scientists-call-for-strong-air-pollution-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Leading Mercury Scientists Call for Strong Air Pollution Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce its long-awaited Mercury and Air Toxics Standards<\/a> any day now.<\/p>\n

The new standards would place the first-ever national limits on mercury and other toxic air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants, and the issue is already being examined from every possible angle \u2013 politics, economics, business, health, you name it.<\/p>\n

Now a new group is weighing in.<\/p>\n

Just yesterday, 23 of the country\u2019s leading scientific experts on mercury wrote a letter to the White House<\/a> about the proposed new standard and its importance to the health and safety of all Americans.\u00a0\u00a0And I had the honor of joining them!<\/p>\n

Together, our group of scientists represents at least a million hours of study on mercury and its effects<\/strong>. But this is the first time we\u2019ve publicly weighed in, as a group, to support this vitally important standard.<\/p>\n

We felt compelled to write to President because, during recent Congressional hearings \u2013 despite voluminous scientific literature to the contrary \u2013 a few people actually claimed that there is no science to back up the health benefits of decreasing pollution from power plants.<\/p>\n

Our letter<\/a> is our answer to that ridiculous claim:<\/p>\n

As mercury scientists and physicians, we strongly refute such statements<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And we:<\/p>\n

\u2026 <\/strong>affirm our belief that the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) will protect the health of thousands of Americans each year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of us have studied how mercury travels in our air, soils or waters — and how it ends up in our bodies<\/a>. Some of us specialize in how various forms of mercury affect everything from our individual enzymes and cells all the way to our ecosystems. We have, collectively, traced mercury all the way from smokestacks to the cells in our bodies. We also represent physicians who actually treat patients, including children, who have chronic pulmonary, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases caused by air pollution.<\/p>\n

And we all came to the same conclusion, which we put into our letter<\/a>:<\/p>\n

… minimizing all mercury exposure is essential to improving human, wildlife and ecosystem health because exposure to mercury in any<\/span> form places a heavy burden on the biochemical machinery within cells of all living organisms.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our letter both affirms our support for the scientific findings of EPA\u2019s Science Advisory Board on the health impacts of methylmercury, and goes a step further \u2013 to highlight the toxicity of all forms of mercury.<\/p>\n

Here are our key points:<\/p>\n