HEAVY METAL & A LITE WEIGHT PRESIDENT

Sorry, we are not talking about Metalica or THE LESSER'S favorite type of music, though a dirge is certainly appropriate. The subject is mercury and under BUSH THE LESSER the proposed change in rules to allow more mercury to be emitted from the smoke stacks of anyone who contributes enough money to THE LESSER'S campaign.

Understand that man produced mercury is a persistent, toxic substance that effects the nervous system and once mercury enters the body it is never excreted but stays and accumulates doing substantive damage to the human body. Children and pregnant women are particularly susceptible to this dangerous heavy metal. But children don't vote and down wind states of these smoke stacks tend to vote Democratic so who cares. Printed below is the view of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

As the Bush administration tries once again surreptitiously to gut the Clean Air Act, it cannot fool Americans on these two points: 1. If you have to warn people about a food, something's wrong with it. 2. A poison is still a poison, even if you change the label.

45 States have strict warnings about how much fish people should eat from fresh and coastal water. Why? Because the fish contain dangerous levels of mercury. Mercury can cause brain damage, particularly in babies and children under 6..One in 12 women has absorbed enough mercury to pose a threat to a developing fetus.

Mercury also is linked to palsies, seizures, learning problems and structural abnormalities. In adults, it can bring on cardiovascular problems. It's a toxin on par with lead and asbestos. Just as the EPA was set to make progress regulating this serious threat to children's health, the Bush administration wants to downgrade mercury's status and let industry dictate its cleanup.

About a third of mercury pollution comes from the smokestacks of the nation's coal fired power plants. A mere teaspoon falling from the sky can befoul a modest sized lake. On the lake's bottom a food chain begins: Bacteria convert mercury into its more toxic form, methylmercury. That's absorbed by algae, which are eaten by worms, which are eaten by fish, which are eaten by humans...who are poisoned.

IN 2000--10 years after the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, a federal judge ordered the EPA to stop stalling and regulate power plant mercury pollution. Recently the EPA floated a well researched standard that would reduce mercury by 90% in 3 years. Industry panicked.

So, just before the court's deadline this month, the Bush administration came up with a market based cap and trade scheme favored by industry, particularly by several large Bush campaign contributors. Not coincidentally, the idea mirrors Bush's Clear Skies proposal, which is stalled in Congress. This proposal would relabel mercury as a run of the mill pollutant, instead of the hazard it is. It reduces mercury by only 30% and takes until 2018 to get rid of it.

All without assuring public safety. The draft of the rule admits: "The overall cap level may not eliminate the risk of unacceptable adverse health effects of mercury emissions." That's especially true where mercury is concentrated--places such as Pennsylvania (and New Jersey) which ranks 3rd nationally in mercury pollution from power plant emissions. Americans should demand that their government treat mercury as the health threat it is. As with arsenic, they don't want mercury in their water. The Bush administration should protect public health, not private industry.