New EPA rules aimed at curbing mercury emissions, which mainly affect coal-fired electrical generating plants, are based on bad science, write Willis Eschenbach and Jane M. Orient, MD, in the summer issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.
Medical sources of mercury are likely far more important, but are not subject to comparable scrutiny, the article says.
Most atmospheric mercury comes from natural sources, especially the oceans, they write. US power plants were responsible for about 64.1 metric tons of mercury in 2008, or 1 percent of the total 7,500 metric tons of all mercury emissions. The EPA’s assertion that its mercury rule will save 11,000 lives every year is “absurd,” the authors write.
They conclude that the EPA’s “regulatory policies with respect to coal-fired power plants and other industries, which impose enormous costs, are based on questionable methods extrapolated to absurd conclusions.”
Photo Credit: coal power plant via Shutterstock
