Alliance for Lighting InformationAlliance for Lighting InformationMercury pollution is a significant health threat to humans. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported that power plants, principally the coal-fueled plants, released 48 tons of mercury into the environment in 1999, as noted in the EPA news release here and tabulated state by state here.
A brief news story about the efforts in Massachusetts to clean up the power plants that generate the most pollution is here. An extensive discussion of mercury and midwest power plants developed by the Clean Air Task Force is available here, including a clear discussion about the history of mercury pollution and control efforts, as well as many references.
One way to evaluate the extent of mercury pollution is to compare the rate of pollution to the allowable rate of ingestion or "reference dose" established by the EPA. For the US in 1999, with approximately 290 million people, 48 tons of mercury released annually corresponds to 135 mg per person per year. Comparing this to the EPA reference dose of 0.1 microgram per kilo of body weight per day - for a 75 kg (165 lb) person, 2.7 mg annually - indicates that the mercury release rate from power plants is approximately 50 times the allowable ingestion rate.
Obviously, not all the mercury released by power plants is being ingested - but mercury does accumulate in the environment, especially waterways, particularly in fish and seafood. Certainly, because the rate of introduction into the environment has been 50 times the allowable rate of consumption, there is the potential for a significant problem in the future - and perhaps even today.
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