The U.S. EPA is expected to announce as early as next week a plan to begin regulating dangerous mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Mercury contamination is believed to cause neurological damage in some 60,000 babies born each year in the U.S., and the damage may affect kids’ performance in school, according to a report released in July by the National Academy of Sciences. The EPA’s plan to require new emissions-scrubbing and coal-cleaning technologies at power plants could help lower mercury levels in fish, the most common source for humans of the dangerous contaminant. Mercury pollution from power plants makes its way into streams, lakes, and oceans and accumulates in fish. An EPA proposal for regulating mercury emissions is now under review at the White House. Two environmental groups have sued the EPA for not acting more quickly on this issue.
