New EPA Rule Targets Harmful Mercury Emissions, Would Cut Them By More Than 50 Percent

AP:

WASHINGTON -- New federal rules are in the works to limit the amount of mercury and other harmful pollutants released from boilers and solid waste incinerators.

A proposal Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency targets mercury emissions from about 200,000 industrial boilers, heaters and solid waste incinerators. Mercury can damage the brain and nervous system, especially in fetuses and children.

The EPA says the new rule should cut mercury emissions in the United States by more than 50 percent.

The public has 45 days to comment on the proposal before the EPA moves ahead.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- New federal rules are in the works to limit the amount of mercury and other cancer-causing pollutants that can be released from boilers and solid waste incinerators.

A proposal Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency targets mercury emissions from about 200,000 industrial boilers, heaters and solid waste incinerators. Mercury can damage the brain and nervous system, especially in fetuses and children.

The EPA says the new rule should cut mercury emissions in the United States by more than 50 percent.

The public has 45 days to comment on the proposal before the EPA moves ahead.

(This version CORRECTS that pollutants are harmful rather than cancer-causing.)

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[springsm]

01:27 AM on 05/03/2010

The Greedy Obstructionists will make sure this doesn't happen.

[spacetimejunkie]

10:52 AM on 05/02/2010

to comment:
www.epa,gov/airquality/combustion

[iceage7]

03:26 AM on 05/01/2010

Can the next republican adm..over turn these rules since they are not legislative..u know republicans will say big govt..we need to deregulate

[bipolarcat452]

01:24 AM on 05/01/2010

Why not address the greatest source of and root cause all that mercury getting into the waste stream in the first place? Where is it? Inside of each and every one of those new 'green' compact fluroescent lightbulbs! Millions of them all over the USA. Prior to that there is also mercury in each and every standard fluroescent tube lamp which have been used in overhead lighting inside of almost every office buildings, school, hospital, parking garage and streetlamp since the 1950's. We tend to forget that the HG issue has been around long before the modern CFL came on the scene an all those buzzing overhead tubular lamps you remember from grade school so long ago. How many of us as kids used to toss these things off the top of bleachers or buildings and released mercury vapor into the enviornment? (and don't get me started on the HG based compounds they still claim is safe for use in vaccines that are in fact the major cause of childhood autism)

[abbienormal]

08:11 AM on 05/03/2010

Um, no. Try electricity generation, boilers, and incinerators. Really, scientific evidence is not that hard to find - I wouldn't rely on personal experiences as evidence of global phenomena.

[isis]

11:29 PM on 04/30/2010

At last.

[Bushdepression]

08:55 PM on 04/30/2010

Yet more government interference in the free market!

If you don't like mental retardation, don't have children!

[quillsinister]

12:22 AM on 05/01/2010

Sadly, that's basically what they say. The Randroids would have us all living in slums of belching smoke stacks and burning rivers so long as someone, somewhere was making an absurd fortune from it.

[SecretSister]

05:09 AM on 05/01/2010

Totally concur. If the "Randroids" could build condos on the Grand Canyon rim, they would find a way to sell the park to their best buds on Wall Street so they could "develop" the land.

[Faust Eddie]

08:07 PM on 04/30/2010

what about these new screwy light bulbs that run on mercury? I am nervous to use them. I recycle about 80% but I don't like these...

[quillsinister]

12:24 AM on 05/01/2010

The electricity they save actually reduces the total amount of Hg released into the environment because of how much electricity we get from coal. :-)

[Disapointed Human]

08:05 PM on 04/30/2010

mercury. Last I heard this substance was poison to humans. Shouldn't it be zero? Seriously.

[abbienormal]

08:12 AM on 05/03/2010

That would be nice.

[fcsakes]

07:26 PM on 04/30/2010

In the old days, when I heard the word "mercury," I thought "thermometer." Now I think fish.

[SilentSolidarity]

06:24 PM on 04/30/2010

great! This was long overdue!

[ibisko]

06:22 PM on 04/30/2010

think the fish are sucking on broken thermometers?
this stuff has poisoned some of the greatest and most beneficial food/water sources.
marine mammals are also contaminated.
we are pooping in our own food.

even HP badge holders are not exempt

[fcsakes]

07:26 PM on 04/30/2010

Exempt from what?

[LastAngryWoman]

10:19 AM on 05/01/2010

Badges?
You don't need no stinking badges!

Because...
You're good enough, smart enough, and doggone it!
People like you!

=]]

[vidyadhara]

06:08 PM on 04/30/2010

Yea! It's abount grand time! No wonder there's so much depression and pschological disorders. They need to BAN mercury in dental amalgams. Contrary to the ADA's position, it DOES leak into your body, causing low-grade chronic mercury poisoning. It's time to call all the liars out!

[olivia]

05:16 PM on 04/30/2010

It is ABOUT. FREAKING. TIME.