Today, EPA held a hearing on its proposal to strengthen the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. These standards were established in 2012, and have helped reduce mercury and other heavy metal contamination, but they need to be stronger. Making the standards stronger will also reduce other hazardous air pollution, carcinogenic chemicals, nitrogen oxides, and ozone. This is a good rule, and will protect infants, children, and all of us from health-damaging air pollution.
Dr. Anne from Mothers & Others For Clean Air spoke at the hearing today.
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“In Georgia, our Department of Natural Resources publishes updated fish consumption guidelines every year for people who eat the fish they catch. This is because the fish are contaminated with various heavy metals or toxins and can harm people’s health. Most of the guidelines are for mercury and other heavy metals, and much of the heavy metal contamination in rivers and lakes originated as power plant smokestack pollution, which then bioaccumulates in animals. The guidelines have 77 rivers and creeks and 52 lakes, with guidelines for each kind of fish and sometimes the size of the fish.
Of the 77 rivers and creeks in our state, only one part of one river has no fish consumption restrictions. ONLY ONE. The other part of the same river has a DO NOT EAT advisory for certain fish.
Of the 52 lakes, only 3 have no fish consumption restrictions where people can eat as much as they want. So out of 129 bodies of water in our state where people go fishing, only 4 have no restrictions on eating the fish. And again, most of that is due to mercury or other heavy metals, much of which originated from power plant smokestacks.
Mercury is especially harmful to the developing fetus and young children because it affects brain development. Other heavy metals from power plant smokestacks, including lead and arsenic, are also very harmful to young children.
The other hazardous air pollution from power plants is also very dangerous to health, and many of the chemicals are carcinogenic. Particulate matter damages children’s lung growth, increases risk of preterm birth and low birthweight, and has been linked to changes in mental development and autism. In adults, it causes heart attacks, strokes, dementia, and lung disease. This proposal will also lower nitrogen oxides and ozone, both of which are very damaging to children’s lungs and health.
Furthermore, because of our country’s history of redlining and other forms of racism, many power plants are located in or near communities of color. Fenceline communities bear the brunt of the pollution from power plants, and stronger power plant pollution standards would help decrease exposure and health disparities.
Children do not choose where they live, where they go to school, whether the air they breathe is clean and healthy, or whether there’s a power plant close to their house or playground. Adults make these decisions for them, and we have the duty to make decisions that protect the health of children and other vulnerable groups.
Mothers & Others For Clean Air strongly supports this rule, and we urge EPA to make it as strong as possible and finish the rule making process as quickly as possible, to protect health.”
05-09-2023
