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The Problem

Decades of scientific evidence and public health case studies link toxic mercury exposure to serious public health and environmental problems. Mercury poses a threat because it is highly toxic even in minute quantities, remains in ecosystems for long periods and accumulates in the tissue of people and wildlife.

Government health researchers estimate that one in six pregnant women have blood mercury levels that may put their fetus at risk for adverse neurological effects. Researchers estimate that 630,000 U.S. children are born each year with a risk of nervous system damage from mercury exposure in the womb.

Mercury poisoning also jeopardizes the seafood industry, as many species of recreational and commercial seafood have been shown to have significant levels of mercury in their tissue, which raises public health concerns.

Coal-fired power plants are the single largest unregulated source of mercury emissions. Mercury is released when coal is burned in plant furnaces, and falls to the earth with rain.

In Louisiana alone, 142 miles of rivers are so contaminated the state has advised against consuming certain fish. Mercury pollution often increases its impact as it moves up the food chain, and creates a legacy of damage for months, years, and even decades after it is released into the environment.

Another cause of mercury emissions is offshore oil and gas rigs. When drilling, the 4,000 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico dump a mixture that includes mercury into the water, which potentially accumulates in the muscle protein of fish and other wildlife. This contamination would then add to the other sources of mercury pollution. The decades of drilling in the Gulf could jeopardize the seafood industry and may have contaminated the ocean's ecosystem around the rigs. Read the Mobile Register's special report on mercury and oil rigs.

More than half of the mercury releases to Louisiana's air come from two outdated chlorine factories. These two factories are among the last that have refused to shift to state-of-the-art technology that is now in use industry wide, and are responsible for over 2,000 pounds of mercury released into Louisiana’s air annually.