The Red, White, and Green

Photo via Flickr: Odalaigh

As a child, I loved tuna fish sandwiches; so much so that my mom made them for my school lunches at least twice a week. They’re still one of my favorite comfort foods (topped with potato chips and pickles for extra crunch, please), but I don’t enjoy them all that often: That’s because mercury pollution has turned tuna and other large predatory fish like swordfish and orange roughy into a veritable health hazard, putting partakers (especially young ones) at risk for neurological damage and mental retardation.

Most of us have come to accept this as a sad truth of our modern, polluted world, much like the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico or the smog in my now-adopted city of Los Angeles. We’ve diligently stuck to government advisories, trading our cans of white albacore for chunk light and turning away the toro at our favorite sushi spots. But what most of us haven’t done, however, is ask the really important question: Not, How much fish is safe to eat? but, How can we end this pollution once and for all?

Thankfully, the federal government is not only now asking that question — it’s actually going to do something about it. The Environmental Protection Agency has unveiled its plan to reduce mercury emissions from portland cement plants (the third-largest source of mercury air emissions in the US) by 92 percent over the next three years. The new regulations will also markedly reduce particle pollution, as well as smog-forming nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide.

Good news, especially since the new rules will yield up to $18 billion in health and environmental benefits, but it remains to be seen whether EPA will set its sights on the real emissions elephant in the room with regards to mercury pollution: coal-fired power plants.

–Jennifer Grayson

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