Alert Issued in March -- Mercury

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Monday, March 14, 2005CONTACT:Joel Finkelstein(w) 202.887.1345© 202.285.0113Leading Education, Learning Disability Advocates: Alert Issued toParents Linking Toxic Mercury and Learning DisabilitiesWASHINGTON, DC - The Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA),the National Education Association (NEA), and the Arc of the UnitedStates today released a brochure that identifies mercury pollution asone of the greatest threats facing developing fetuses, infants and youngchildren. This publication also shows parents how exposure to thispotent neurotoxicant can adversely affect their child's learningpotential.Mercury air pollution poisons the nation's lakes, rivers and oceans.Coal fired power plants are the nation's largest uncontrolled source ofmercury. Mercury contamination in fish across the U.S is so pervasivethat health departments in 45 states and U.S. territories have issuedfood consumption advisories for freshwater and coastal fish. The U.S.Food and Drug Administration and EPA specifically warn pregnant women,women of childbearing age, nursing mothers, and young children to limittheir consumption of fish."Mercury can impair, damage, and even destroy functioning nerve tissue -much like lead," said Dr. Larry Silver, past president of the LearningDisabilities Association of America and clinical professor of psychiatryat Georgetown University Medical Center. "This brochure is designed tohelp parents identify the causes of mercury pollution and the dangersassociated with this toxic chemical."The brochure, designed for parents, explains where mercury comes from,provides food consumption advice, offers ways to help stop mercury airpollution at its source, and helps parents identify clues to learningdisabilities. The brochure is available online at www.ldaamerica.org andwww.thearc.org."At the National Education Association Health Information Network, werecognize that health issues affect a child's readiness to learn," saidJerald Newberry, Director of the NEA Health Information Network. "That'swhy it's important to give parents - a child's first teacher - access toinformation to help them make the right decisions from the very start.This brochure provides vital information to parents - especiallypregnant women - on steps they can take to prevent exposure to mercury.It also offers simple tips to help parents identify and get assistanceif their child has a learning problem."A learning disability is neurobiologically-based and affects the abilityto read, write, speak, and/or compute math. It also often interfereswith the ability to build social relationships. A learning disability isa life long disorder that affects the manner in which individuals withnormal or above average intelligence select, retain and expressinformation. Incoming or outgoing information may become scrambled as ittravels between the senses and the brain."As many as 10% of the school-aged population may have learningdisabilities," said Jane Browning, Executive Director of LDA. "More than50 percent of all students in public school special education programshave been diagnosed with dyslexia, auditory processing disorders, andother learning disabilities. Even though these are smart and sometimeseven gifted students, they often fail in school and must struggle withtheir learning disabilities throughout their entire lives."Mercury poses the greatest hazard to the developing fetus because itpasses easily through the placenta and impairs the development of thebrain and nervous system. When the fetus is exposed to mercury throughmaternal fish consumption, neurodevelopmental effects may unfold as thechild grows. Infants may appear normal during the first few months oflife, but may later display subtle effects.Children and infants may be more sensitive to the effects of mercurybecause their nervous systems continue to develop until about age 16.Children also have higher mercury exposures than adults because a childeats more food relative to his or her body weight than an adult does. Asa result, children have a higher risk for adverse health effects."We know that in extreme cases mercury can cause intellectualdisabilities, such as mental retardation, which can require lifelongsupports," said Leo Berggreen, President of The Arc of the UnitedStates, an organization working to include all children and adults withcognitive, intellectual, and developmental disabilities. "The Arc of theU.S. will do whatever we can to get this vital information into thehands of parents-to-be. We hope the EPA can be counted on to protect alldeveloping babies from exposure to lifelong harm. In the meantime, weintend to get information to expectant parents so they can protect theirchildren themselves.""In just a few short days, the Bush administration will issue its finalmercury rule," said Martha Keating, Senior Scientist with the Clean AirTask Force. "Let's hope that they finally got it right and that thisrule will actually protect America's children. We watched with dismaythe inordinate amount of influence the big energy companies have exertedso far. We hope EPA's final rule demonstrates they have put health andscience above politics."