Weapons of mass pollution

Weapons of mass pollution
Help tell the Bush administration to eliminate harmful chemicals

From Scott Gollwitzer, staff attorney for the nonprofit environmental organization Appalachian Voices:

While America's sons and daughters dutifully risk their lives searching for and eliminating chemicals of mass destruction in Iraq, the Bush administration quietly announced plans to release more chemicals of mass destruction into the homeland's air and water. Seeking swift approval of these industry-supported "controls" on the emission of mercury and haze-forming fine particles by coal-fired power plants, the administration is holding only three public hearings in just three cities across the entire country. One such hearing, promising to be well attended by industrial air polluters seeking the weakest possible pollution controls on their domestic chemicals of mass destruction, will be in Research Triangle Park Feb. 25 and 26.

Although it is difficult to identify with precision the exact point at which mercury and fine particles become "chemicals of mass destruction," there is little doubt that easily controlled air pollutants -- those that kill tens of thousands, while poisoning hundreds of thousands more each year -- are, in fact, "chemicals of mass destruction."

Fine particles (which contribute to Charlotte's all-too-familiar haze) emitted by coal-fired power plants, lodge deep in our lungs causing more than 30,000 premature deaths and more than 600,000 asthma attacks annually. In North Carolina that's 1,800 deaths and 37,100 asthma attacks. At the same time, mercury from these power plants harms 1,800 newborn Tar Heels by causing brain damage, birth defects and learning disabilities. As mercury settles into our waterways, it concentrates in fish that humans eat -- contaminating bass, bowfin king mackerel and other species that humans eat with concentrations as high as 1 to 10 million times greater than the surrounding waters.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy reports that the administration is abandoning previous determinations by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that mercury from most modern coal-fired power plants could and should be reduced by 90 percent by 2008. Instead, the administration supports cutting mercury emissions by just 30 percent over a decade longer, placing thousands more children in harm's way. Similarly, national clean air watchdog Clear the Air notes that the administration is turning a blind eye to EPA's stricter recommendation to regulate fine particles in favor of a rule that will cause an additional 2 million asthma attacks and 100,000 premature deaths by 2020.

In essence, the administration is aiding and abetting the nation's most poisonous and deadly air polluters in committing crimes against the homeland by advocating strategies far weaker than the best available.

Mercifully, there's time for the administration to reverse course. To honor the sacrifices of our troops abroad, the administration must, to the fullest extent possible, eliminate domestic chemicals of mass destruction. This can only be accomplished if the administration understands our expectations. Please attend the hearing and ask the administration to take its duty to eliminate domestic chemicals of mass destruction just as seriously as our sons and daughters are taking their responsibilities to do the same in Iraq.