No More Mercury Factsheet

Mercury In Maine's environment
Many new moms have done their homework about what’s safe to eat, and know that mercury contamination in fish poses a serious risk to them and their children.

But if mothers and children need to limit their fish intake due to mercury, why isn’t the Bush administration forcing the largest source of mercury—power plants—to clean up as much of their pollution as possible?

We’re urging the U.S. EPA to remove as much mercury from power plant emissions as is technologically feasible.

"We have more than enough evidence of mercury's harmful effects—we need our leaders to take steps that will ensure that the threat posed by mercury does not get worse." - Matthew Davis, Advocate

Mercury's dangers are widespread
Smokestacks spew mercury pollution into the air, where it rains and snows down into our waterways. Mercury accumulates as it passes up the food chain.

The principal way that people are exposed to mercury is by eating fish, a staple of our diet. Maine and 43 other states, the Food and Drug Administration, and EPA have all issued advisories warning people, especially women and children, to avoid or limit eating fish.

Even with such warnings in place, the U.S. EPA estimates that one out of six U.S. women of child-bearing age has blood-mercury levels high enough to put fetuses at risk.

Polluters resist mercury limits
Electric power plants are responsible for approximately 40 percent of the country's mercury emissions. Power plants are the only major mercury polluters that remain uncontrolled.

The electric and coal industries successfully lobbied EPA and Congress for 13 years to delay rules on power plants' mercury emissions—while study after study confirmed a substantial public health threat. Now, these industries are pressuring EPA to do as little as possible.

Poisoning our wildlife
Loons and other wildlife that eat fish are also at risk from mercury poisoning. In fact, Maine's loons contain more mercury than loons in any other state. Mercury may disrupt their reproductive systems and make them more susceptible to disease, reducing the next generation and potentially thinning the overall population.

Simply cutting mercury emissions from power plants would quickly reduce mercury in our environment. A recent study by the EPA, USGS and the state of Florida found that rules that limited mercury emissions from incinerators quickly reduced mercury in fish and wildlife.

Reducing mercury pollution
Like we did with lead pollution that was emitted from American cars' tailpipes, we need to eliminate mercury pollution from its largest source: power plants.

In addition to the grave environmental and health risks, widespread mercury pollution threatens businesses, restaurants and grocery stores across the state that rely on fishing. The sport fishing industry alone contributed $250 million to Maine's economy last year.

The Bush administration should remove as much mercury from power plants as is technologically feasible. Two years ago, EPA's own scientists said current technologies could achieve a 90 percent reduction from power plants.