A Women's Agenda
Environment & Health
Mercury Facts
Reducing mercury pollution from power plants will protect public health and
reduce mercury levels in fish and wildlife. The technologies used by power plants
to comply with the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) will also have the effect
of reducing mercury emissions, and the costs to do so are reasonable and affordable.
Mercury Threatens Human Health, Especially Women and Children
Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin.
- When developing babies are exposed to mercury in the womb, it can interfere
with the proper development of their brains and neurological systems.
- Babies affected by mercury can develop cognitive problems, coordination problems,
attention deficit disorder, and mental retardation.
- According to the Center for Disease Control about 6 percent of women have
mercury blood levels in excess of the safe level set by the National Academy
of Sciences, the Federal Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection
Agency.
- An estimated 630,000 babies are born each year that have been exposed to
unsafe levels of mercury in the womb.
Developing babies are extremely sensitive to mercury.
- Unborn babies are at the very top of the food chain. Mercury levels in babies’ blood
are 30 percent higher than the mercury levels in the mother’s blood.
- Mercury easily crosses the placenta and acts as a bio-chemical Trojan Horse.
The growing fetus mistakes the mercury for protein and tries to incorporate it
into the brain and neurological system.
Mercury Pollution Can Be Reduced at Reasonable, Affordable Cost
Pennsylvania power plants are very profitable.
- Like a fully paid home mortgage, their capital costs have been paid off.
- Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants are baseload plants that run all of
the time.
- They produce electricity at costs far below the wholesale price of electricity,
which more and more frequently is set by the cost of electricity produced by
gas-fired plants.
- Wholesale electricity prices range between 6 and 7 cents per kilowatt hour;
coal-fired power plants produce electricity at a cost of between 3 and 4 cents
per kWh.
Cutting mercury pollution is affordable.
- Power plants that install scrubbers, which also reduce mercury emissions,
to meet CAIR can lower the cost of compliance by selling sulfur dioxide credits
to plants that do not install scrubbers.
- A National Wildlife Federation report estimated that the average customer
would see an increase of $1.08 on monthly electric bills if all the cost were
passed through to consumers.
- In Pennsylvania’s competitive retail electricity market, electricity
suppliers cannot just routinely pass on their costs. They can choose to pass
on none, some or all of their costs, or they can decide to reduce profits.
Pennsylvania Power Plants Pollute Pennsylvania Air and Water with
Mercury
Mercury contamination in Pennsylvania is widespread and pervasive.
- The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission issued an advisory in 2001 covering
every lake, river, and stream in Pennsylvania that cautions people to limit eating
fish because of mercury and other contamination.
- Stricter advisories are in place for 877 miles of streams and 28 lakes cautioning
people to eat fish very infrequently or not at all depending on the level of
mercury contamination in the fish.
Mercury contamination in Pennsylvania comes mostly from power
plants located in Pennsylvania.
- Pennsylvania power plants are the 3rd biggest mercury polluters in the country.
- 83 percent of the mercury pollution in Pennsylvania comes from power plants.
- New data from an Environmental Protection Agency-funded study shows that
70 percent of local mercury contamination comes from nearby power plants.
Reductions of Mercury Emissions at Pennsylvania Power Plants Will
Reduce Mercury Contamination in Pennsylvania Lakes, Rivers and Streams.
Waste incinerators were required to reduce their emissions of mercury by more
than 90 percent in Florida. Subsequently mercury contamination in fish and other
wildlife in the Everglades went down by 60 percent. This same phenomenon has
been demonstrated in other studies.
This information was prepared by Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future.
For more information or to get involved, please contact Heather Sage, Director
of Outreach at 412-258-6681 or sage@pennfuture.org.
Resources:
Citizens
for Pennsylvania's Future
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