After reading our site’s official junk science debunker and columnist Steve Milloy’s latest column called “Mercury Rises Over EPA Pollution Rules” (last Friday in our columnist section!), and then today’s Associated Press news item about mercury poisoning, you’d be forgiven for laughing at the liberals both in government and in the media. They’re becoming so predictable.
Here’s a snippet (with my emphasis) out of Steve Milloy’s latest column—but read the whole thing—it only takes 3 minutes:
[…] Although mercury emissions from power plants have never been regulated before, no scientific study documents a single adverse health effect attributable to mercury from power plants.
In September 2001, researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory estimated the incremental health risk to fetuses—supposedly a highly vulnerable population—from power plant emissions of mercury to be between 1 in 1 million and 1 in 100,000. In EPA-land, such minuscule and hypothetical risks typically do not warrant regulatory action.
A November 2004 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “confirmed that the blood mercury levels in young children and women of childbearing age usually are below levels of concern.”
One reason for the absence of data linking power plant mercury emissions with health effects is that U.S. power plants simply aren’t a major source of mercury emissions. Including natural sources of mercury, U.S. electric utilities are responsible for only about 0.6 percent of global mercury emissions.
The glaring fact is that there likely will be no health benefits resulting from reduced mercury emissions, regardless of whether they’re brought about by the Green-supported technology-based option or Bush administration-supported cap-and-trade option. […]
And here’s a snippet out of the Associated Press’ John Heilprin (via Yahoo News) news item today, complete with the seemingly requisite massively overblown rhetoric, Ã la the environmentalist industry lexicon (with my emphasis again):
[…]WASHINGTON – The Bush administration on Tuesday ordered power plants to cut mercury pollution from smokestacks by nearly half within 15 years but left an out for the worst polluters.
The Environmental Protection Agency said the cuts would help protect pregnant women, women of childbearing age and young children from a toxic metal that causes nerve damage. Critics said the arrangement fell far short of what was needed, and they promised to fight it.
[…] “At the behest of industry, the Bush administration has just endorsed the continued poisoning of children and pregnant women with mercury,” said Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., siding with several Democratic and Republican senators. “We will fight it in the courts, we will fight it here in Congress, and we will fight it in statehouses across the nation.” […]
Then the story breaks the real news in what reads almost like a ninth grade (public school) essay on the environment, incomplete with no scientific data:
EPA officials said the regulations won’t solve the problem since most Americans get mercury by eating fish from overseas. They advise people to heed government warnings to limit fish intake. Mercury concentrations accumulate in fish and work up the food chain.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
Contact Mr. Johannesen about this article using this form. Please refer to article's title.
FOLLOW @JoelJohannesen ON X!
- Feeling phobic? The Libs have a phobia for you! - Friday May 17, 2024 at 6:08 pm
- CANADA GOING DOWN is now its own section - Friday May 17, 2024 at 2:47 pm
- The Once-Famous OOZING BRAIN POO AWARD is Back - Friday May 17, 2024 at 2:42 pm
