Monday, May 15, 2006

mercury for dinner

Yes, every body of water in my whole state has a mercury advisory. In fact, Kentucky leads the nation in per capita deaths due to power plant pollution. The following letter to the EPA by Ramish Blatt gives an excellent overview.

And the problem is not just Kentucky. The EPA itself has found that as many as 630,000 children are born each year in the US with unhealthy levels of mercury in their blood.

Administrator Mike Leavitt
Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington, DC 20460

Dear Administrator Leavitt:

I am writing on behalf of 4600 Kentuckians who are members of the Cumberland (Kentucky) Chapter of the Sierra Club. We are dismayed that the EPA has proposed an extraordinarily industry-friendly and ineffective mercury rule. These weak regulations will not only perpetuate the negative impacts of the toxic chemical across the nation, but will also exacerbate the existing serious pollution problems in our state. We urge you to rescind this rule and come up with more stringent regulations that will protect Kentuckians and their environment.

Read the rest of this letter

Clear the air puts out excellent fact sheets on air pollution. Clicking here will pull up a PDF of the Kentucky one.

Feel free to visit an earlier post -- "Carving the Flesh of the Earth"

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

no burritos?

Demonstrator Lubian Piedras holds up a sign while wearing a sombrero at a planned protest in San Diego, California May 1, 2006. In what organizers called 'A Day Without Immigrants,' rallies across the country closed hundreds of restaurants, shops and factories. Construction projects were disrupted, day labor jobs went begging, children stayed home from school and waves of humanity poured through city streets.

REUTERS/Fred Greaves