UN Committee Recommends Stricter Mercury Limits

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http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2003/2003-06-30-10.asp

 

 

UN Committee Recommends Stricter Mercury Limits

 

 

NEW YORK, New York, June 30, 2003 (ENS) - A joint United Nations and World

Health Organization (WHO) food safety committee called last week for a tougher

standard for levels of mercury in food. The committee said the revised standard,

which is nearly twice as strict as the existing world health exposure standard,

is merited because of growing evidence of health risks from mercury to pregnant

women and children.

The recommendation came from 48 scientists from 17 countries who participated in

the 61st meeting of the Joint Expert Committee for Food Additives and

Contaminants (JECFA), which was established in 1956 to provide safety and risk

assessment advice.

The primary health risk from mercury emerges when airborne mercury falls into

surface waters where it can accumulate in streams and oceans. Bacteria in the

water transform mercury into methylmercury, which fish absorb when they eat

aquatic organisms and humans absorb when they eat fish.

Scientists have shown that methylmercury can cause brain and nerve damage and

studies indicate children and women of childbearing age are at a

disproportionate risk. Predatory fish, such as swordfish, tend to have higher

levels of mercury. (Photo courtesy World Wide Fund for Nature)The experts

reevaluated previous JECFA risk assessments for methylmercury and recommended

that the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake be cut to 1.6 micrograms per

kilograms of bodyweight - nearly half the original standard of 3.3 micrograms

per kilogram.

Advocates for stricter mercury standards hailed the move and used the

recommendations as ammunition against the Bush administration's refusal to

support international and domestic actions to tighten standards.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) weekly standard is 2.8 micrograms

per kilogram.

" The new WHO recommendations are more reflective of the latest science on

methlymercury exposure risks, " said Michael Bender, of the Mercury Policy

Project and representative of the Ban Mercury Working Group, a coalition of 28

groups around the world working on mercury issues.

The FDA continues to " lag behind with an outdated and indefensible standard, "

said Bender, that allows millions pregnant mothers and children to

" unnecessarily be exposed to methylmercury at unsafe levels. "

The JEFCA did, however, stress that when providing advice to consumers and

setting consumption limits, public health authorities should keep in mind that

fish play a key role in meeting nutritional needs in many countries.

Fisheries products are the world's most common source of protein and the FAO

predicts worldwide demand will increase from some 16 kilograms (35.2 pounds)

today to some 19 to 21 kilograms (41.8 to 46.2 pounds) by 2030.

Predatory fish - such as sharks, swordfish and large tuna - tend to have higher

levels of methylmercury.

The recommendations for tighter mercury standards comes a few months after the

Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP determined

there were sufficient adverse effects from global mercury pollution to warrant

international action.

But objections from the U.S. delegation prevented the Governing Council from

adopting binding limits on emissions from power plants and other major mercury

sources.

Although mercury is a naturally occurring metal, most mercury pollution comes

from the burning of fossil fuels in the coal-fired power plants, waste disposal,

industrial processes and mining. Current emissions of mercury add to the

existing pool, which is continuously mobilized, deposited on land and water, and

remobilized.

Scientists believe mercury levels in the environment have increased three to

five fold in the past century.

The Bush administration is wary of placing strict regulation on mercury

emissions from U.S. power plants, often noting that the United States is

responsible for only about 12 percent of global mercury emissions.

But environmentalists believe the United States has the responsibility to take a

leadership role on the issue and criticize the administration for not acting

aggressively to reduce U.S. emissions.

" These new stringent health numbers from WHO serve as a clarion call to the Bush

administration to aggressively tackle the major sources of mercury pollution, "

said Linda Greer, director of the Public Health Program at the Natural Resources

Defense Council. Some 44 U.S. states have advisories in effect for mercury

contaminated fish. (Photo by George Gentry courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service)Greer says the administration is using administrative rulemaking

processes to undermine other efforts to address mercury generated by the auto

recycling industry, the chemical industry and the coal industry.

These rules are in addition to the administration's air pollution plan - known

as " Clear Skies " - which critics say would impose weaker mercury standards on

power plants than those mandated by the Clean Air Act.

Coal-fired plants are the nation's largest source of mercury emissions, spewing

out some 50 tons of the toxic metal each year.

Yet these plants are exempt from clean air standards - the other two large

sources of mercury, which are medical and municipal waste incinerators, are

tightly regulated and U.S. emissions have been reduced by more than 90 percent

since 1990.

But under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is mandated to issue " maximum achievable

control technology " standards for coal-fired power plants, with compliance by

the end of 2007.

In December 2001, EPA said these standards could reduce mercury emissions from

power plants by some 90 percent, reducing the total to some five tons by 2007.

The administration says Clear Skies would reduce mercury emissions more

efficiently, by installing a cap of 26 tons in 2010 and 15 tons in 2018.

Bush administration officials, and the coal fired power plant industry, believe

that the technology to cut mercury emissions is unproven and too expensive to be

forced upon the industry at this time.

Some Republican Senators have already argued that even the timetable in Clear

Skies is too aggressive and will be too costly to the industry.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2003.

 

 

 

 

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