pay no attention that research, no,stop, i said stop!

March 22, 2005

EPA ignores own research in creating mercury rule

The U.S. EPA may have grossly underestimated the health benefits of

mercury-emission reductions, according to a study commissioned by,

uh, the EPA. When the Bush administration's new mercury rule was

released last week, administration officials claimed that it would

yield only $50 million a year in health benefits, while costing

industry $750 million a year to implement. This poor cost-benefit

ratio was used as justification for not requiring greater reductions.

But an EPA staffer has recently revealed that a study conducted by

EPA and Harvard scientists estimated the health benefits of the rule

to be some 100 times greater -- worth some $5 billion a year in

health savings -- because of mercury's effects on cardiac health.

Agency officials said the study was submitted too late, but

interviews and documents reveal that to be, uh, not true. They also

say the study had unspecified " flaws. " But they now acknowledge that

no one can say " definitively " that the costs outweigh the benefits --

just that they outweigh the " quantified benefits. " Perhaps if they'd

quantified all the benefits ...

straight to the source: The Washington Post, Shankar Vedantam, 22 Mar 2005

Kick over the wall 'cause government's to fall

How can you refuse it?

Let fury have the hour, anger can be power

D'you know that you can use it?

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