Wampum

Mercury and Autism Open Thread

We need a new autism open thread around here. This time, let’s discuss mercury.

I probably do not need to remind you of MB’s reference to a new study out of Texas that found that:

There was a significant increase in the rates of special education students and autism rates associated with increases in environmentally released mercury.

On average, for each 1000 lb of environmentally released mercury, there was a 43% increase in the rate of special education services and a 61% increase in the rate of autism.

The association between environmentally released mercury and special education rates were fully mediated by increased autism rates.

Currently, power plants dump 96,000 pounds of mercury per year into the environment.

I was going to write about the new article about mercury in Discover, Our Preferred Poison, but I do not have to because Julia wrote it for me.

The Bush administration’s new rule on mercury emissions not only will permit more mercury to continue to be dumped into the environment for many more years than the competing proposal of the Clinton administration, it will actually allow more mercury to be dumped than current law in some states. The AP reports:

A newly announced federal order to reduce mercury pollution from coal-burning power plants will require weakening more stringent state controls that were enacted in Wisconsin only last year, a state official says.

"It's a little frustrating," said Lloyd Eagan, bureau director for the air management program at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, in a telephone interview Tuesday night.

The Bush administration ordered Tuesday that power plants cut mercury pollution from smokestacks by nearly half within 15 years, but the worst polluters will be able to buy pollution "credits" from plants that give off less mercury than allowed.

By contrast, the state rule, effective last Oct. 1, required the state's four major power plants to cut mercury emissions in two phases - by 40 percent by 2010 and by 75 percent by 2015.

The rule also established a goal of an 80 percent reduction by 2018 to encourage more progress in reducing mercury pollution from the plants.

"Now we're going to have to true up to the federal rule, so we'll have to backslide," Eagan said.

Mercury levels in Wisconsin are already such as to cause “all Wisconsin lakes” to be “under a fish consumption advisory alerting people to limit the number of fish they eat…”

Wisconsin has also suffered an increase in autism rates and budget woes have caused it to cut back on important services to the autistic.

So, at least in Wisconsin, we are going to change standards for mercury emissions to increase the amount the law permits despite new evidence linking mercury emmissions to autism, and despite the fact that Wisconsin’s lakes are already polluted, and despite the fact that Wisconsin has seen a dramatic rise in the incidence of autism, and despite the fact that Wisconsin has cut social services for the autistic.

The ship is headed in the wrong direction. We need a course correction.

Your comments are highly valued.

Posted by Dwight Meredith at March 16, 2005 10:51 AM | TrackBack