Mercury pollution goes under DHEC microscopeBy Tony Bartelme (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Friday, January 11, 2008
COLUMBIA — Amid rising concerns over mercury, the state has begun an intensive review of mercury pollution that may include a first-ever study into whether the poisonous metal is harming South Carolinians, the state's top health official said Thursday. Recent news reports and the debate over a proposed coal-fired power plant in the Pee Dee sparked the agency's new push, said Earl Hunter, commissioner of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. "Given that attention, I thought it was time to take a comprehensive look at its prevalence in the environment and its impact on our citizens," Hunter said. The agency's move comes in the wake of a recent Post and Courier series that identified mercury hot spots in South Carolina. Last year, the newspaper collected hair samples from people who ate fish from these hot spots and found some had dangerously high levels of mercury in their bodies. The series also exposed how coal-fired power plants, cement factories and incinerators, many around Charleston, annually emit thousands of pounds of mercury into the air. It showed how DHEC tests more than 1,800 fish every year but had never checked to see whether mercury was harming people. The series prompted protests in Florence over Santee Cooper's plan to build a coal-fired power plant in the Mercury Triangle, an area bounded by the Great Pee Dee, Little Pee Dee and Lynches rivers that has some of the state's most mercury-contaminated fish. It also prompted a group of physicians to write Hunter in November and urge DHEC to begin testing people immediately for mercury. During DHEC's monthly board meeting, Hunter acknowledged the physicians' letters but said it would be difficult to set up a large-scale system to test people. He said a better approach is to do a targeted epidemiological study. His agency also has begun looking at better ways to warn the public of mercury's dangers. By March, for instance, DHEC will begin posting warning signs at boat landings. Conservation groups applauded DHEC's move. For years, "there's been a lack of epidemiological studies for pollutants like mercury and port pollution that are having huge impacts on people," said Nancy Vinson of the Coastal Conservation League. "This is great news." Tiny amounts of mercury can be dangerous. The equivalent of one drop can contaminate fish in a 20-acre lake. The substance builds up in people's tissues when they eat certain species of fish, especially predators such as largemouth bass and catfish. At high-enough levels, it can cause nerve damage, heart disorders and other health problems. Last year, South Carolina issued warnings for people to avoid or limit consumption of fish in more than 1,700 miles of rivers, mostly in the coastal plain. Hunter said the agency has worked hard to warn people about mercury, distributing roughly 50,000 pamphlets a year explaining which fish are safe to eat and which ones people should avoid. The agency also worked with the auto industry and Nucor, a major mercury polluter, to encourage auto salvage companies to remove mercury switches from junk cars before they're sent to smelters. But he said a comprehensive program developed in Louisiana could serve as a model for what might be done here. That state has done extensive studies on fish, people and the sources of mercury pollution. He added that the Louisiana state legislature funded that program, and that his agency so far has no such funding. Reach Tony Bartelme at 937-5554 or tbartelme@postandcourier.com. |
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Comments
This article has 17 comment(s)
Posted by majorjohnson on January 11, 2008 at 7:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't know of any connection between strokes and mercury. I also don't know of anyone who has ever been hurt by the minute amounts of mercury in fish. While there are warning, they are conjectural because there is no scientific evidence that eating fish with mercury traces actually harms anyone. Because mercury poisoning is real on exposure to high levels does not necessarily infer that poisoning will occur at low levels.
They now lock down schools when someone breaks a thermometer. And the same people pushing this are the people who don't want that power plant supplying your electricity...coincidentally they are also the same people who want to mandate you use a CFL rather than an incandescent. These are also people who use CFLs in places like pantries and closets where they actually use more electricity than incandescents do, requiring more power generation. CFLs contain mercury.
Posted by majorjohnson on January 11, 2008 at 8:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
As our resident socialist I can't really expect intelligent comments from you John. Frankly I don't believe you have read any scientific studies on the effects of mercury, or you would understand that mercurial poisoning from eating tainted fish is entirely conjectural. You are merely using this in your attempt to damage the energy infrastructure in the state because you consider energy companies to be evil capitalism at work.
The only know episodes of mercurial poisoning from eating tainted fish comes from Japan in the 1950's, where the children of some mothers who ate extremely highly tainted fish as the majority of their diet were born retarded. There has been no study showing a relation between eating fish and any damage to anyone outside of that one extreme incident.
Posted by rmsems on January 11, 2008 at 10:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
majorjohnson, here is one who got mercury poisoned in SC. It took a handful of docs to figure out what I had -- usually they said, oh, just a stomach bug, well it wasn't that. After a couple of years they finally figured out what I had: Mercury Poisoning. I had to be treated with EDTA -- no fun, let me tell you. Let alone all the stuff they put in foods nowadays.
There is a great Indian proverb that sums it all up:
• When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money
Posted by rmsems on January 11, 2008 at 11:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
JohnQ, we did a lot of fishing and I cooked the fish. They never made a connection as to where it came from. Our oldest, back then he was 8 or 9 years old, got very sick and went for CTs etc. no one would find out, then off to the allergist ...
finally they did a mercury test on him, which came back positive for over-exposure, subsequently they tested me, I was loosing hair at the time, went through a battery of tests at MUSC, and had continuous stomach problems, then heart problems -- on and off, only after the older one got sick, a Charleston dermatologist made the connection and first took a biopsy from my scalp and hair samples, then blood tests etc.
The treatment for it is no joke either. It took several years to recover somewhat.
Posted by mggoose2000 on January 11, 2008 at 11:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Majorjohnson,
JohnQ gotcha on that one!
Mercurial poisioning is very common place, but not often brought to the forefront by the media or the medical community.
I personally feel that DHEC has been dragging their feet for long enough.
Let's not applaud too loud until we see what they report in their findings. I'm curious if they will report the truth or cover up their findings.
Posted by rmsems on January 11, 2008 at 11:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Early,
yeap, I lived most of my life in Charleston (James Island), but don't live in Charleston right now, never worked in an industrial setting, always been an environmentalist, DHEC et al were called back then, but didn't do a thing. Through the hair analysis the doctors determined it was long-term exposure and over time the mercury accumulated causing the problems. We had the house checked etc., no mercury in the paint, no stuff was used to kill fungus on the walls (after Hugo a lot of people used it and it does contain high amounts of mercury--but that would be contamination through air, just like cigarettes, they, too contain mercury).
The doctors determined conclusively it was through food intake, not through breathing etc. Now, you tell me?!
Doctors just don't look for that kind of stuff, you go there and nowadays, it's either allergies or viral infections?! Mercury is not the only problem, there is more to it. If you ever read food labels, you must feel like you are in a chem. lab. All I have to say on the subject of pollution and politicians taking bribes would fill up pages and pages.
Posted by dmwallac on January 11, 2008 at 1:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Early said: Yes, I am one that will say a power company will bully people, destroy land, pollute land to dangerous levels to get the monetary benefit of their industry.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I wonder what would happen if we had, say, a non-profit power company in the state. Yea, then they would only try to build a plant if it were actually needed to meet the electricity requirement of the state.
Posted by BulldogTLC on January 11, 2008 at 3:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
dmwallac -
You mean like the plant that IS needed right now. In case you don't understand how this works, power has been purchased because of a lack of generating capacity. Growth in the area is tremendous. There is a NEED for a power plant. Santee Cooper would not go through the trouble to build a plant that was not needed. Conservation can only help with what is already here. Unless the growth is stopped there is no other alternative to provide the power needed in this state RIGHT NOW.
Posted by majorjohnson on January 11, 2008 at 7:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
JohnQ now thinks he has the symptoms of fish related mercurial poisoning. Now we're gonna have to listen to that hypocondriac socialist moan about how he's been damaged by the evil corporate greedy empire even more.
As far as rmsems is concerned, murcurial poisoning takes two forms, elemental and organic. Elemental murcurial posioning can be treated via chelation, like the use of EDTA. Organic cannot be treated. Elemental is the breathing of vapors containing mercury, ingestion of elemental compounds, etc...Ingestion of tainted fish would be organic posoning. Organic mercurial poisoning is not at all treatable. Why would they treat you with chelation for methymercury poisoning? If you were actually poisoned through fish, you were also robbed by the doctors who charged you for chelation. I happen to actually have a degree in chemical engineering, so I do have an understanding of these things.
What it comes down to is all anecdotal crap, with no real proof. It's bs. And your google search showed not one single confirmed case of mercurial poisoning through fish JohnQ, other than the Japanese incident that I mentioned which involved daily intake of extremely highly contaminated fish, and it was the children born of the women who ate those fish who were affected. Outside that single incident there isn't a single reliable confirmable incidence of confirmed fish related mercurial poisoning.
if rmsems has mercurial poisoning the odds of it being from eating or cooking a fish or two every week are non-existent. Now every danged one of you is gonna be blaming every headache you have on mercury from a fish you ate, and that's gonna be your science.
I'm not at all surprised that someone with the intellect of JohnQ would fall for this, but reading these posts it looks like the dunderheads are gonna win this one. We'll all be living in the dark and washing our clothes on rocks soon, and you'll all find something else to blame your headaches on and destroy that too.
Posted by pendolf on January 11, 2008 at 10:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thanks for the sensible info majorjohnson. You are absolutely right about JohnQ - he doesn't know what he is talking about. There is no single documented case of mercury poisoning in the world from tainted fish at the trace levels found in the US. The only mercury poisoning incidents are related to a handful of specific accidents like the one in Japan you mentioned.
The real problem is that EPA set the human mercury dosage very, very low - 1 ug/kg-day. This is six times lower the the World Health Organization (0.6) and 5 times lower the Japan (0.48). Thus, we have all these mercury warnings that would not occur in any other country in the world.
Keep eating fish. Here is a report from one of JohnQ's beloved sources, the Washington Post, urging pregnant and breast-feeding mothers to eat fish
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
Posted by csor on January 11, 2008 at 11:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Some facts on causes of mortality in the US, as opposed to the P&C's hysteria mongering attempts:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pu...
Death by mercury poisoning is not in the top fifteen causes of death for adults and not in the top ten causes of death for infants. Top three causes of death for adults are cancer, heart disease, and stroke. You're more likely to die from an accident (no. 5) or the flu (no. 8) than from the toxic effects of mercury.
So when are we going to have the big influenza news series? When is CCL going to start protesting that everyone isn't getting a flu shot?
Posted by PeterShanley on January 11, 2008 at 11:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Csor, this is like saying that because lightning is not in the top 10 causes of death we should go to a golf course and hold the club above our heads in a thunderstorm. I am ashamed of all these people trying to be serious about science when doctors have called for DHEC to study mercury. Come on folks, why so much angst against cleaning up the way we generate power. You folks who are so good at research should know there's a proposal to conserve power and bring in renewables right now- we don't need to waste our hard earned money on electric bills so that Santee cooper can build something that will poison us.
Posted by rmsems on January 11, 2008 at 11:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
majorjohnson, this explanation between elementary and organic mercury poisoning was quite interesting. It was never determined where we got the mercury from, but one thing we know for sure, the chelation therapy with EDTA reduced the amounts of mercury in our systems to near to nothing.
However, we should also think about why so many people are developing cancer. I mean cancer has been around since the world is spinning, but over a hundred years people were most likely dying from natural causes vs. now people are more likely dying as a result of heart disease, cancer etc.?!
Posted by rollo on January 12, 2008 at 12:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I read an article a couple of weeks ago (by the same reporter, I believe) that seemed to be comparing in a round about way mercury contamination in the PeeDee with that found near an actual coal plant on the Edisto.
The question which the P&C won't ask, much less answer, is how much of this contamination is naturally occurring and how much is manmade? They won't even say what the parts/unit is at either site.
Just enough info to stir the puddin', never enough to form an informed opinion.
Posted by phred on January 12, 2008 at 9:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
rollo - these guys have the answers to nothing. They wrote this story to promote their very biased mercury "series" (biased to the Coastal Conservation League, that is) and based on a report I read from someone who was at the DHEC board meeting, this story is so biased it is incredible. Here is a story in the State newspaper that much more accurately describes the DHEC meeting:
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/2813...
I know it is hard to believe, but, yes, both reporters were at the same meeting.
At the meeting, the DHEC commissioner went over several sources of mercury and how it gets into the environment (natural sources as well). At one point, a DHEC board member who is a doctor, said something to the effect "we keep hearing about a mercury and coal plants but if other industries put much more mercury into the environment, aren't we looking at the wrong source"?
There you go. That did not get into the story because it would not serve their ends, which is help the enviros that want their agenda promoted. That agenda - stop coal fired power plants at any cost (even if they are clean and safe). The cost to us for this? Our power cost doubles or triples. Since most of the CCL's leaders live on Sullivans and south of Broad, they could care less about a $1000/month power bill (which it may already be that high) but I for one, don't want my power going up that much.
Posted by cinnabar on January 13, 2008 at 9:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
rsems, can you advise what mercury levels(in number form, ppm, ppb, etc) you had in your blood (or other tissue) that caused your problems? And the levels(near nothing, you stated) you had after therapy? Did the doctor give a numeric target for the endpoint of therapy? This would be of interest to those who are interested in testing their exposure. Also, can you anyone advise what tissue, blood or hair mercury levels cause symptoms of poisoning?
Posted by rollo on January 14, 2008 at 10:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I've begun to believe that many of these environmentalist types simply don't like people! It drives them crazy that we drive, they consider us "unenlightened" while they attempt to deprive us of electricity, they go ballistic when we dare mention the viability of nuclear power, and they want to burn staple foods for energy!! (I half expect one of them to unzip his face and reveal a serpents head any day now.)
Here they find excuses to prevent coal-fired power, while in MA and TX they are protesting wind generated power. They are Luddites, and they are obsessed with ordering other peoples lives around their own peculiar ideas.
Thanks for the link, Phred.