Maine’s freshwaters are contaminated with enough mercury that state health officials warn about eating your catch. Most of us should limit ourselves to two meals per month, depending on where and what you catch. With few exceptions, pregnant and nursing women, women who may get pregnant, and children under age 8 shouldn’t eat any freshwater fish from Maine’s inland Read More
mercury
Moms Oppose Changes to EPA Mercury Rule
Maine has public-health advisories against eating fish from 14 bodies of water contaminated with mercury. By Andrea Sears Public News Service News Story March 20, 2019 AUGUSTA, Maine – Do your job, protect our kids. That’s the message dozens of mothers from 15 states took to Washington, D.C., this week. The Environmental Protection Agency has Read More
Turn in Your Old Thermostat
Replace your old mercury-containing thermostat and bring it to a hardware store for a $5 coupon. Mercury that ends up in the environment threatens wildlife and people. This recycling program has been in place since 2006 and has kept more than 300 pounds of toxic mercury out of Maine’s environment. To view more tips, click Read More
Court Upholds EPA Power-plant Emission Standards
The case has potential air-quality ramifications for Maine, which has been described as the ‘tailpipe’ of the nation. By Pete Yost The Associated Press Portland Press Herald news story WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s first emission standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal- and Read More
Maine’s Advanced Recycling Programs Succeeding
Keeping Mercury and Other Toxics Out of Environment NRCM news release Today, DEP officials presented a report to the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee showing that Maine’s five advanced recycling “product stewardship” laws are a huge success and have prevented more than 45 million pounds of electronic waste and hundred of pounds of toxic Read More
State Plan Changes after Delay in Reporting Mercury in Lobster
Portland Press Herald news story by Scott Dolan, staff writer State Toxicologist Andrew Smith received an urgent message in 2011: A team of independent scientists had discovered dangerously high levels of mercury in black ducks in a marsh near the mouth of the Penobscot River. But what Smith didn’t know was that the same scientists had previously Read More
Contamination of Maine Lobster Shows Value of Regulations
Kennebec Journal editorial The lobster fishery has been the one bright spot in Maine’s seafood industry for years — at least until last week. On Feb. 18, the state Department of Marine Resources ordered a two-year shutdown of lobster and crab harvesting in a 7-square-mile region at the mouth of the Penobscot River. Mercury contamination Read More
Mercury Increasing in Birds Downstream of Canada’s Oil Sands
Synopsis by Brian Bienkowski Environmental Health News news story Mercury levels are increasing in the eggs of water birds that nest downstream of Canada’s oil sands region, according to a new study. Mercury is increasing in eggs of gulls and terns in waters downstream of Alberta’s oil sands region. Mercury levels are increasing in the Read More
Take Action! Clean Air Act Under Attack from U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Big Polluters
Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a “friend-of-the-court brief” in U.S. Appeals Court to try and stop the EPA’s lifesaving Mercury and Air Toxics Standard adopted last year under the Clean Air Act. This action makes it clear who the U.S. Chamber real friends are: big polluters. The Chamber’s claims of economic and Read More
