When a bridge falls or a stage collapses and harms innocent people, we get upset – and rightly so. These dangers are easy to see, and we want solutions. Yet every day invisible mercury and other toxic air pollutants fall from the Indiana sky and damage the brains of our infants and children, and it doesn’t get much attention because we can’t “see” it.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized rules restricting mercury and air toxins from power plants. Until now, there have been no federal controls requiring power plants to limit their emissions of mercury, arsenic and metals.
It’s time to open our eyes to the dangers of mercury. Hair samples taken by the Sierra Club in Indianapolis in April 2011 revealed that all people sampled had some amount of toxic mercury in their body. These test results came from adults, but the real danger is to infants still in the womb. When fetuses are exposed to high concentrations of mercury in the womb, their brains may develop abnormally, impairing learning ability and reducing IQ.
As many as one in 10 U.S. women of childbearing age has a mercury level high enough to put their developing children at risk, according to an EPA study.
Indiana ranks fourth in the nation in mercury emitted from coal-fired plants, the biggest source of mercury in our state. Mercury and other toxic air pollutants emitted from these plants fall from the sky in the air we breathe, ending up in our lakes and streams and contaminating fish.
The state tells pregnant women and children to limit fish consumption to once a week or less, but what if that is the only protein they can afford to put on the table? Shouldn’t fish caught in Indiana waters be safe to eat?
The best thing we can do to protect our children from mercury is to find cleaner sources of energy. We applaud the new EPA standards that will cut 90 percent of the mercury from coal plants and cut other toxic emissions. Retiring or cleaning up older coal-fired power plants, switching to cleaner energy sources and conserving electricity will reduce mercury emissions in Indiana. As seen in neighboring states, mercury can be reduced significantly without threatening our electricity supply and reliability, if we have the will to do it.
JODI PERRAS
Improving Kids’ Environment, Indianapolis
JESSE KHARBANDA
Hoosier Environmental Council, Indianapolis
DAVID MAIDENBERG
Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter
CHRYSTAL RATCLIFFE
Indianapolis NAACP
JOHN BLAIR
Valley Watch, Evansville
RICHARD HILL
Save the Valley, MadisonJIM SWEENEY
Porter County Chapter, Izaak Walton League of America
