Listen to this MP3 from the Sierra Club on mercury contamination. What you think about it?

Question

Here's the MP3 :http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/media/2006/air_america/episode_1.mp3

It's 6 minutes long. It's about a recent study where 33% of women in California and 46% in NY (20% entire US) were found to have unsafe mercury levels.

It's not a video. It's the results of a study conducted by Washington State University. I'm not asking whether you think the stduy results are true. I'm asking about what you think about that level of mercury contamination.

Answer 1

Yea, seen this in magazines for a while. The only fuzzy point is the effects of low level mercury exposure, specifically the more dangerous form methylmercury that is stored in the muscle tissues of big fish that are at the top of the food chain.

Unfortunately I seem to remember reading that coal plants in 2005 were given an exception to the clean air act of 1990 that said mercury was to be controlled to the greatest possible extent. It was replaced with some cap and trade scheme that provides economic incentives to reduce mercury and delays strict control of mercury until around 2020.

Answer 2

I don't think they know what they are talking about. In Ecuador down in the jungle gold mining ,they use the old technique of purifying the gold by washing the gild in Mercury. The gold and Mercury attract each other and then the gold is got out by vaporizing the Mercury. A lot of them have brain damage from contamination.

Answer 3

it is probably true to some point. mercury is lethal to the body of most every living thing. The Sierra Club was formed in order to preserve the forests in the Sierra Mountains. Its founder was John Muir who was an ardent preservationist. The whole point of the Sierra Club is to preserve wildlife and forests, not investigate humans. if the video involves the effect of mercury on wildlife, then it is most likely accurate.