Opposition to the Bush Administration's efforts to substantially delay a scheduled cleanup of mercury contamination gained momentum today when MoveOn.org joined forces with the Environmental Working Group (EWG), the Learning Disabilities Association and former EPA Administrator Carol Browner at a Washington, D.C. press conference denouncing the Bush plan.
MoveOn.org -- in partnership with EWG -- used the event at the National Press Club to launch a hard-hitting television ad campaign that takes the administration to task for continuing to place children at risk of learning disabilities and other developmental problems due to exposure to mercury-tainted fish. Scheduled to run on television stations in Washington, D.C. and New York City, the ad shows a poison symbol morphing into a happy face on a child's lunchbox, illustrating the danger from eating tuna fish sandwiches containing mercury-contaminated fish.
"Most people think about mercury as an air pollution problem, but it's winding up on the end of our forks, spoiling one of the best food choices on the planet," EWG President Ken Cook told BushGreenwatch. High levels of mercury can be found in a wide range of America's ocean, stream and lake-bred fish, including large-mouth bass, swordfish, catfish, tuna, some shellfish and trout.
President Bush has proposed classifying mercury as "less hazardous under the Clean Air Act, so he can delay a previously scheduled cleanup of this toxin, which contaminates fish from coal power plant emissions," according to a MoveOn.org media advisory.
A separate print ad, developed in partnership with MoveOn.org and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is running in the New York Times. This full-page ad, under the headline "The Politics of Poison," outlines the administration's history of deceiving the public on toxics issues, especially arsenic and mercury.
MoveOn.org has already generated more than 180,000 comments to the EPA to try to stop the President from choosing large corporate campaign contributors (such as those in the energy industry) over mothers and children, who are most at risk from eating mercury-tainted fish. Mercury causes harm to the developing brain of the fetus when consumed (in fish) by pregnant women. Young children who eat fish high in mercury are also at risk for learning disabilities and other developmental problems.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week issued new fish consumption guidelines, advising pregnant women and children to stay away from swordfish as well as other types of fish high in mercury, and to limit tuna fish meals to no more than six ounces per week.[1]
The MoveOn partnership with EWG, NRDC, former EPA Administrator Carol Browner and the Learning Disabilities Association is another indication of the growing surge of opposition to Bush's mercury policy by the nation's environmental health community.
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SOURCES:
[1] HHS and EPA press release, Mar. 19, 2004.
