Mercury Exposure

Mount Sinai Study Shows Impacts of Mercury Pollution on the Health of our Children and the American Economy

by Mount Sinai Medical Center

Reductions in IQ due to mercury pollution affect between 300,000 and 600,000 American children each year and will cost the United States an estimated $8.7 billion in lost earnings annually (range: $2.2-$43.8 billion), according to a new study by scientists at the Mount Sinai Center for Children's Health and the Environment in New York, released today in Environmental Health Perspectives (http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2005/7743/7743.pdf), the peer- reviewed journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The Mount Sinai study, "Public Health and Economic Consequences of Methyl mercury Toxicity to the Developing Brain," is the first study ever to be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal that has examined the magnitude of the impact on America's children of the loss of intelligence (IQ) caused by mercury pollution. It also the first study to ever quantify the economic costs of these impacts.

The loss of IQ due to methyl mercury toxicity affects between ten and fifteen percent of the four million children born in America each year. While not all of this damage can be prevented, the study found that coal-fired power plants which produce 41 percent of mercury emissions nationwide cause some $1.3 billion of the economic loss.

Throughout the 1990's, the Environmental Protection Agency made steady progress in reducing mercury emissions from power plants. However in 2003, citing the high costs of pollution abatement, the Bush Administration backed away from this good work and proposed the "Clear Skies Act."

Passage of the "Clear Skies Act" would relax controls on power plant emissions and permit twenty-six tons of mercury to be released each year into the atmosphere through 2010, a total of 156 tons or 312,000 pounds. Current provisions under the Clean Air Act allow only five tons/year of mercury emissions from power plants by 2008. The uncontrolled emissions that would be allowed under "Clear Skies" will contaminate rivers, lakes and the oceans, keep mercury levels in fish high, and leave children vulnerable.

"As pediatricians, we worry about the potential damage to each affected child," said Dr. Leo Trasande, the study's lead researcher, and Assistant Director of the Center. "Moreover, beyond the harm to individual children, lie enormous socioeconomic consequences. The significant impact that "Clear Skies" could have on the economic health and security of the United States should be considered in a careful debate on mercury pollution controls before "Clear Skies" becomes law."

"If mercury emissions are allowed to remain at high levels," said Dr. Philip Landrigan, Director of the Center and Chairman of Community and Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai, "children will continue to suffer loss in intelligence and disruptions of behavior. Most of these effects will last a lifetime and are likely to cost this nation far more than the costs of installing flue gas filters to prevent mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants."

The Center for Children's Health and the Environment is the nation's first academic research and policy center to examine the links between exposure to toxic pollutants and childhood illness. CCHE was established in 1998 within the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The mission of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment (CCHE) of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine is to protect children against environmental threats to health.

The abstract of the article is available at http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2005/7743/abstract.html

Press Release: Mount Sinai Medical Center

Copyright: US Newswire

Published: 28 Feb 2005

Contact: lucia.lee@mountsinai.org, or Lauri Boni, 212-241-7840 or lauri.boni@mssm.edu

Url: releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43611