California Communities Against Toxics
(A Project of the Tides Center)
P.O. Box 845
Rosamond, CA 93560

805-256-0968
805-256-0674 facsimile

dcap@qnet.com

 

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Jane Williams April 20, 1999

Dueling Agencies Create a Cloud of Controversy Over the Deadly Neurotoxin, Mercury

The Agency Toxic Substances Disease Registry (ATSDR), a Federal agency that examines health threats from Superfund sites, is set to release is long-awaited final toxicology profile for mercury today amongst a cloud of controversy. The controversy centers around two ongoing studies on the effects of mercury in children who ate fish contaminated with the highly neurotoxic metal. One study found irreparable neurological damage at very low levels of exposure (the Faroe study), the other study found decreased motor activity in 2 year olds, but at higher levels of exposure (the Seychelles study).

Despite the contradictions in the studies and toxicologists' concerns that public policy on such a dangerous toxin should follow a cautionary approach, ATSDR, relying on the Seychelles study, is releasing their toxicological profile. The document sanctions exposing people to three times the level of mercury currently allowed under the existing EPA standard.

Exposure to mercury comes predominantly from fish consumption. The Mercury Study Report to Congress released by EPA to Congress in December 1997 identified that 3 million children and 7 million adults are at risk from mercury poisoning due to fish consumption habits. The levels of mercury in the environment have been rising significantly over the past century due to combustion of mercury bearing fuels (coal) and waste. Many consumer products contain mercury which when burned release the deadly metal into the atmosphere.

Within the past two weeks, numerous Senators and Congresspeople have written to Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala urging her to rein in the renegade ATSDR, and instead to wait for a closer look at the science of mercury exposure being undertaken by the National Academy of Sciences. Senator Boxer is one of the Senators concerned about ATSDR's action. Representatives of numerous state agencies and professional organizations. have written as well. These pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

"We have already seen where there is pressure to use this standard inconsistently with the way ATSDR developed it. If states use this to justify raising fish advisory levels, they play Russian Roulette with the health of our nation's children." said Eric Uram Associate Representative for the Sierra Club's Midwest Office.

ATSDR's insistence on pushing forward despite concern regarding its actions have led many close to the issue to believe that the release of the mercury toxicological profile is politically motivated. The Food and Drug Agency (FDA) is also part of Health and Human Services and has long been seen as protecting the seafood industry with its lax policy (which allows ten times the currently acceptable EPA limits of mercury in commercially sold seafood) on mercury.

"We failed to protect our children from the hazards of lead, and just last week the National Academy of Sciences said that we have failed to protect Americans from arsenic in drinking water.....now we are poised to make the same mistake with mercury." said Jane Williams, Executive Director, California Communities Against Toxics.

ATSDR's reliance on the Seychelles study, while ignoring the findings of harm to children at much lower levels of exposure in the Faroe study, threatens to undermine state programs to warn consumers of the dangers of consuming freshwater fish contaminated with mercury. This reliance on the Seychelles study also provides political cover for industries which emit mercury, such as coal-fired power plants, to avoid reducing their emissions.

"In the debate over mercury, it's hard to tell where the Clinton Administration is," said Michael Bender of the Mercury Policy Project. "They're either for protecting children, the unborn and future generations, or they're for protecting the mercury polluters."

As a public health agency, ATSDR should be following the precautionary principle, which says when in doubt, err on the side of caution. It appears the agency, in this case, is not following this basic public health practice," said Michael Murray, Staff Scientist with the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes office.