IQ Loss Linked to Mercury Costs $8.7B

WASHINGTON -- Lower IQ levels linked to mercury exposure in the womb costs the United States $8.7 billion a year in lost earnings potential, according to a study released Monday by researchers at a New York hospital.

The Mount Sinai Center for Children's Health and the Environment combined a number of previous studies to determine hundreds of thousands of babies are born every year with lower IQ associated with mercury exposure.

Using work examining the effects of lead exposure on IQ, researchers determined that even a 1.6 point drop in IQ could cost a person $31,800 in lifetime earnings because of missed educational opportunities or jobs.
...
Mount Sinai released its findings in hopes of influencing the debate over legislation before Congress, known as Clear Skies, that would change how the government regulates emissions from power plants and other sources.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-iq-loss-pollution,0,5676902.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

comes from coal fired power plants. Overconsumption of fish like tuna and swordfish contribute, but coal plants spew the stuff.

Bush likes this. He loves the thought of a whole nation of people as limited in intellect as he is. They vote GOP, you know.

We're dumbing down our children and grandchildren for the sake of corporate profit.

Dr. Dean reasonably can call the GOP "evil".

CLEAN AIR TRUST ASSAILS PRO-INDUSTRY MERCURY PLAN

The Clean Air Trust testified on February 25, 2004, that the Bush administration's pro-industry mercury plan could delay meaningful reductions in this poison for decades. The Trust noted that the plan appears to have been heavily influenced by lobbyists for big campaign contributors. Read the testimony.
(snip)
http://www.cleanairtrust.org/

What I have heard is most industries mercury emissions are down except coal fired power plants (Ken Lay dept) because of laws from many moons ago.

Bush and Repubs have never seen pollution they didn't like, at least from what I can tell or have seen

that's 8.7B more for their pockets...and 8.7B less they will have to pay out in wages.

If they had their way, we'd all be slaves, working for free on the plantation, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and only given the bare necessities of life...and no such thing as vacations, holidays, sick time, none of it.

They'd keep us on the edge of life only so that they could continue to suck everything out of us. That's all they want us for...whatever they can get out of us. Once they can't suck any more out of you, they'll throw you to the fucking wolves, and not give a shit, either.

Fuck this country.

Increased profits at corporate level. Most innovations in technology feed the knowledge base and efficiency of all industries and livelihood of all involved. Intelligence can sometimes even be its own worst enemy freezing decision making, and thus the ability to efficiently solve problems in a timely matter.

In the long run it I think it would be hard to prove some peoples lot in life would be better because others are stupid. To take that to the extreme, are we all be better off because we have a stupid, ignorant snobbish and incurious fool like chimpy as the POTUS.

I think you meant "fuck the corporate agenda"

Btw, you should have seen this verbiage before it hit spell-check

the benefits of dumbed down masses who won't figure out the matrix until it's too late, far outweigh any loss in productivity. They'll worry about productivity/profits once the electronic straightjacket is fully in place...

As long as you go along with the system nobody really notices how constricting everything has got. The control freaks are busy taking things from the right and the left to implement this regime that’s half in place. When the Hitler or the communist took over Russia or China it never happened all at once. It was an incremental thing.

The totalitarian control of the world by capitalism / corporatism / Bush type crooks is taking place as we watch. It is taking longer than just a simple country because of size.

Some of us malcontents may get Pooh-poohed talking or discussing things that we see, but most all of the people would be the ones that eventually get thumbed down in any totalitarian system. So would these people who would be taken for foolish in the end rather have us malcontents say nothing and let it happen that much more easily or would they just like us to just plain speak up?

If we were given a voice for a reason, the reason surely wasn't so we could sing in the choir. Also don’t tell me your second amendment is going to protect you either, they find ways, these control freaks

The ironic thing about control freaks is they often don't even see the trap they are building can in-snarl themselves, Richard Nixon is prime example.

Smile, we don't know who they are coming for next :-)

sombody gets it....but by no means is it limited to this country....this situation we find ourselves in is world wide . They've got big plans

is probably down, and falling.

"Mercury levels, Trasande said, are probably lower generally than they were in years before limits were placed on emissions from medical waste and municipal incinerators.

"We've made great progress in reducing mercury emissions over the past decade, and this is likely to have reduced the number of affected children and to have reduced costs by a similar amount," Trasande said.

Leonard Levin, a scientist at the Electric Power Research Institute, said no group has yet to produce solid data defining the impact of mercury on intelligence. "

And that's not including the reduction of lead in our diet, air, and food.

I'm more concerned about estrogen mimics. But that's today.

A lot of people don't think pollution is a problem. Sometimes I wonder what goes through the minds of people who defend corporate pollution. They don't believe it, I guess..? Have they been brainwashed to think that the EPA is a bunch of hippies, or what?

It's okay to trash the earth because Jesus will be here very soon----I can kind of fathom the warped logic there, but how do they justify mercury poisoning in the oh-so-precious unborn? It's okay for babies to be mentally retarded from toxic waste, as long as they aren't aborted.

I'm trying SO HARD to understand the thought process of right-wing nutjobs...

It has sky-rocketed in the last decade. Mercury is thought to be a cause. Americans need to ask hard questions, and fast.

I will give credit to Nixon for forming the EPA. He knew that American citizens would no longer tolerate the poisoning of everything they held in esteem for corporate profit.

the statistic, even 1 in 1,660 would be horrendous.

I'm on the Nightline email list,
they are doing a show about it tonight,
the email quotes the "1 in 166" statistic.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/News/story?id=314

Tonight, we will re-introduce you to Jake and Andrew — and you will see how they are doing now, now that this treatment is being hailed as one of the few known keys to unlock the mysterious doors of autism.

It is estimated that 1 in 166 children are being diagnosed with autism and its related disorders in the United States these days — that is 10 times more than the figure 20 years ago.

and Welcome to DU!

Under Bush, they're going to publish an RDA of mercury as an essential vitamin or mineral.

where the grunts gladly accept minimum wage and bless their employers for being so generous. Yes, as Dr. Dean said, the GOP are evil.

They want us just smart enough to do our work, and too dumb to challenge them or stand up for ourselves.

Evil bastards.

It astounds me that one of every 166 births produces an autistic child, and none on the right ask why. Don't they want to know?

Haven't you figured it out yet? They don't care for people. Only profits. and if it would save one child...but cut into their profits...to hell with the child.

If it would sve a million children...and make a dent in their profits...the million children can go to hell as far as they are concerned.

they are turly unfeeling, uncaring bastards. Who care about only two things. Money and power. Don't take my word for it. Listen to them. Not their words. Listen to their ACTIONS. And then tell me if you think I'm wrong.

is probably down."

This is absolutely not true. Mercury accumulates in the environment through various processes and forms and doesn't just degrade over time. That is one of the reason why this element is so dangerous.

What are they concerned about? The health of the individual or corporate profit? :wtf:

I thought the same thing.

It's not about a loss of "human potential" because mercury is fucking up our brains...no, it's about the loss of corporate earnings potential.

We are just cogs, that's all...

of course..

The net IQ loss is staggering!

looks like they have this covered already
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43618

"Legislation Introduced to Protect Vaccine Manufacturers from Product Liability Litigation; SafeMinds Urges Opposition to HR 650

2/28/2005 8:59:00 AM

To: National Desk

Contact: Phil Elwood, for SafeMinds, 202-628-7772 or pelwood@venturecommunications.com

SafeMinds announced today its opposition of HR 650, inappropriately titled "The Vaccine Accessibility for Children and Seniors Act of 2005," which removes a legal remedy for those injured by vaccines. The title of Rep. Ric Keller's (FL-8) bill is deceptive in that it exclusively addresses product liability lawsuits against vaccine makers.

HR 650 addresses neither increased access to vaccines for children nor seniors; rather the legislation seeks to impose barriers to legal remedies for the vaccine-injured, including those injured from exposure to the mercury-based preservative thimerosal. SafeMinds is the nation's leading organization fighting to rid mercury from all medicines and promoting treatment research for those already injured.

"Each time legislation is introduced to protect the vaccine industry from product liability it is hidden behind a nice title or buried inside legislative minutia," stated Lyn Redwood, president of SafeMinds"

UN meeting decides on voluntary actions rather than export bans

Roxanne Khamsi

A week-long meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, has failed to devise a global treaty to curb the production of mercury. Instead, governments agreed to monitor mercury trade more formally and to encourage voluntary actions to reduce its use.

The lack of a legally binding pact to regulate this harmful heavy metal has led environment groups to label the UN Environment Programme's Governing Council meeting a "missed chance".

At the beginning of the meeting, which was held from 21 to 25 February, representatives from European countries promoted the idea of a treaty to ban the export of mercury completely. But the United States championed the development of voluntary partnerships to help countries improve their mercury management.

Its approach left environmental campaigners unimpressed. "The United States was proposing only soft measures that did not include concrete actions," says Elena Lymberidi of the non-governmental European Environmental Bureau. <snip>

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050228/full/050228-2.html