Archived LHEI Article

EDITORIAL: MERCURY RULES WITH TEETH

BILL RAVANESI, MD

FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE LONGMEADOW HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT INITIATIVE

BOSTON GLOBE, JUNE 26, 2004

THE ENVIRONMENTAL Protection Agency announced earlier this year that mercury concentrations in newborns are higher than previously estimated. It is more important than ever for the states and federal government to limit the presence of this highly toxic substance in the environment.

In Washington, unfortunately, the Bush administration is not tackling mercury emissions by coal-burning utilities as strongly as the Clinton administration proposed to. In this state, Governor Romney recently put laudable new caps on emissions by Massachusetts utilities. But yesterday, with one of his budget vetoes, he missed a chance to take a lead role in curbing other sources of mercury.

Mercury causes learning disabilities and other neurological problems in children. Mercury in the atmosphere and water gets into the food chain, especially larger fish like swordfish and tuna. This year, estimates of the number of US women of childbearing age who had dangerous levels of mercury rose from 8 to 16 percent.

An outside section of the Legislature's budget would have required dentists working with mercury amalgam for teeth fillings to install amalgam separators, which cost between $400 and $1,000, according to the Massachusetts Dental Society. They have been found to get 99 percent of dental mercury out of the waste-water stream.

According to a nonprofit advocacy group, Health Care Without Harm, the 4,000 or so dentists in this state each produce an average of about one-third of a pound of mercury annually. That amounts to some 1,200 pounds of the substance statewide. The Dental Society prefers to let dentists install separators on a voluntary basis in a program that sets a goal of 50 percent compliance by next Jan. 1 and requires 100 percent by 2006. The budget provision would have required faster compliance, and was supported by Romney's own Department of Environmental Protection, but was vetoed primarily because of the cost to dentists, according to Romney spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman.

A separate bill seeks to remove other products that use mercury from the waste stream. These include thermostats, automobile switches, and computer screens, all of which can use alternate materials. In its original language, the bill called for a phaseout process, as with similar laws in Connecticut, Maine, and Rhode Island.

In committee, however, the phaseout provision was removed and producers were required just to establish a program for the safe disposal or reuse of their mercury-containing products. Legislators should reinstate the original language, signaling to industry that New England, which already is the recipient of more than its share of mercury emissions from Midwestern and Southern coal-burning utilities, is serious about addressing mercury pollution in every form.