Mercury concerns mistaken, overstated

Letters containing misinformation and that use fear to get people’s attention should be dismissed out of hand. See “Don’t loosen pollution standards.”

Air pollution today is at historic lows with further improvements having imperceptible health gains, despite the data cited by the referenced letter. Previously, economists Randall Lutter and Richard B. Belzer wrote: “We know of no professional economist independent of EPA who takes the EPA’s estimate seriously …”

Here is accurate information about mercury and children’s IQ.

Global emissions of mercury are 9,100 tons per year, of which at least half come from natural sources — not anthropogenic sources. Mercury emissions from U.S. coal-fired power plants are 41 tons per year, a tiny fraction of total emissions. And, only 0.03 percent of this is converted to methyl mercury, the form that may affect human health.

The Wall Street Journal reported, “The gold standard in mercury research is a University of Rochester study that tracked a group of Seychelles Island children from birth to nine years old. While their mothers ate fish similar to that consumed in the U.S., they ate 10 times as much and had an average of six times as much mercury in their bodies. Yet researchers found no negative effects in their children.”

Test results of 1,709 women in the U.S. of child bearing age showed that 92 percent had mercury levels falling below the EPA’s reference dose of 5.8 parts per billion, which is 14 times lower than the World Health Organization’s 83 ppb, the point at which WHO believes there is a health risk.

Scientists agree, eating fish from virtually any source should be encouraged.

This administration is using the EPA to stop the use of fossil fuels. It’s good that Congress is trying to prevent the EPA from killing jobs with their overzealous regulations.

Donn Dears

Geneva