Limit mercury

I recently passed a billboard west of Portland Avenue on Interstate 40 advertising treatment for brain tumors. When there are enough people in Oklahoma with brain tumors to warrant a huge billboard, there must be environmental causes.

Surely we can do a better job of preventing previously uncommon and deadly diseases that so many of our friends and families are facing. Oklahoma has been named the 25th most mercury-polluted state in the nation. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, linked to reproductive health problems, heart attacks and developmental disabilities.

Coal-fired power plants in Oklahoma emitted a staggering 1,951 pounds of toxic mercury pollution in 2009. Being downwind, we also get mercury from Texas’ numerous coal-fired power plants. It only takes a tiny amount of mercury to pollute our water supplies. That is already happening, as it is unsafe to eat the fish in many Oklahoma lakes.

Part of the government’s job is to protect its citizens. The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to do that with the new standards limiting mercury. Our political representatives continually take sides against the EPA and, by extension, against our families. We are paying dearly for the corporate greed polluting our environment.

—Susan Schmidt
Oklahoma City

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