Mercury Rising

The toxic metal isn't just in seafood. It's showing up everywhere--and it's more dangerous than you think

By Jeffrey Kluger Sunday, Sept. 03, 2006

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    Lately, however, the courts have been pushing back. In March a federal circuit court in Washington strengthened the new-source-review requirements by refusing to sanction a loophole that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had introduced, and last month a circuit court in Chicago forbade a move by the Cinergy power corporation to measure its pollution output hour to hour rather than year to year, because the hourly standard often produces a lower, less accurate reading of emissions. In November the U.S. Supreme Court will address the same measurement question in a case out of North Carolina. All those battles technically address smog and soot, not mercury, but where the first two go, the third follows. "Power plants are the 800-lb. gorilla," says John Walke, a project director with the Natural Resource Defense Council and a former attorney for the EPA. "Their [mercury] output is extraordinary."

    But while much of the environmental mercury in the U.S. comes from power plants, the other dominant source is chlor-alkali plants, which manufacture chemicals used in soaps, detergents and other products. More than 25% of the U.S. total blows in from overseas, particularly from coal-gobbling countries like China. Illinois Senator Barack Obama has proposed two bills to address those problems. One requires the eight chlor-alkali plants in the U.S. that still use mercury to convert to a less toxic alternative by 2012. The other calls for a ban on U.S. exports of mercury starting in 2010--a significant move, since the U.S. sells as much as 300 tons of the metal a year, or 8% of the world's total. More than a dozen state governments across the U.S. are getting ahead of Washington with mercury controls of their own. Foreign governments have also acted. "Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan have been reducing their use of mercury for five to 10 years," says Linda Greer, a member of the EPA's science advisory board.

    The good news is, once mercury is removed from circulation, it needn't trouble us again. As long as it's held in double-hulled containers and kept relatively cool to prevent evaporation, it is largely inert. "It's my favorite chemical for what you can finally do with it," says Greer. "It will sit placidly in a warehouse at under 70 degrees." It's a remarkably quiet end for a remarkably dangerous metal--an end that can't be too soon in coming.

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