You’re being poisoned (continued)   BY JENNIFER LUNDEN

Studies show elevated levels of mercury in the Penobscot even 20 miles below the HoltraChem site, says Dieffenbacher-Krall. And while the EPA and the Department of Environmental Protection are addressing on-site pollution at HoltraChem, they are ignoring what’s happening downriver.

The MPA, along with the National Resources Defense Council, initiated a citizen’s suit against Mallinckrodt — the only former owner of HoltraChem still in existence, now charged with the responsibility for cleanup of the site — to force the company to study the effects of the mercury on aquatic wildlife in the area and the potential human-health impact, and to clean up the Penobscot River. The alliance successfully proved imminent threat to human health and the environment, warranting federal court intervention, and won their case in July, 2002. Now the MPA is legally designated to negotiate adequate research and cleanup efforts.

Maine’s Penobscot Indians are also worried about the river that shares their name. "Our concerns about mercury go right to the heart of our culture as a Native American riverine-oriented tribe," says John Banks, Natural Resources Director of the Penobscot Nation. "We’ve been here in the Penobscot River watershed for over 10,000 years. We’ve developed a very close cultural and spiritual relationship with the Penobscot River." The 1980 Land Claim Settlement Act upholds the Penobscot Nation’s right to regulate fishing among its members, and under the federally recognized Aboriginal Fishing Right, the government has a duty to ensure that fishing rights are protected and that fish are available to the tribe, according to Banks. The necessary federal and state fish consumption advisories, "threaten our ability to carry on our tradition."

As the reservation ends about 25 miles upriver from HoltraChem, Banks says the tribe’s predominant concern is the airborne mercury which blows in from the Midwest and insinuates itself into Maine’s environment. And although studies have not yet been done, many Penobscots worry that mercury may already be affecting their health. Banks hopes that the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), which is currently working with the Penobscot Nation to study health problems related to dioxin, may eventually study the effects of mercury on members of his tribe.

And while currently there is no statewide tracking system that might help identify trends in health problems, including mercury poisoning, among Mainers, Maine may have the opportunity to change that. Maine’s Bureau of Health recently secured a large grant from the CDC to track environmental health information. Groups in the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine hope the State will use this grant to identify trends in learning disabilities, reproductive problems, and other indicators of environmental toxicity. The Bureau of Health is in the process of determining how to use the grant, and it is unclear whether or not it will pay for testing of levels of contaminants in people. Since mercury poisoning is not always easily identified without testing, it may be difficult for the system to attribute health problems to the toxic metal unless exposure information is collected.

The federal government also lacks a comprehensive program to track disease and exposure to environmental contaminants like mercury. The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit research and advocacy organization focusing on the environment and human health, has put together a recommendation for a nationwide environmental health tracking network that would, as stated on its Web site, "enable health officials to investigate clusters, outbreaks, and emerging threats." An "Early Warning System" would "alert communities to immediate health crises such as heavy metal and pesticide poisonings. Similar to the monitoring currently in place for an outbreak of an infectious disease, this alert would help local communities to identify more quickly and act immediately on health crises from environmental exposures."

But the US government does not seem to be in any hurry to establish such a system. In fact, the CDC Web site doesn’t even include mercury on its "A-Z Index" or under "Environmental Health." The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry does not list mercury in it contents.

And some say the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been dragging its feet about publicizing a thorough and accurate national fish advisory. As far back as 1991, the National Academy of Sciences concluded in a study on seafood safety that the adequacy of the FDA’s "action level" standards to protect the fetus "is highly doubtful." While the FDA currently recommends that pregnant women and women of childbearing age avoid eating any swordfish, shark, king mackerel, or tilefish, it was recently criticized by an advisory panel for not adequately publicizing the risks and for not including tuna — which has been proven by the EWG to be more highly contaminated than tilefish, and is included in Maine’s safe eating guidelines — in its advisory.

A February, 2002, EWG press release indicates that the government may be putting fetuses at risk in order to protect the tuna industry. It reports that "A top FDA scientist admits that FDA’s current mercury ‘action level’ in seafood does not protect the fetus and also says that pregnant women need to limit their consumption of tuna to protect their babies from mercury damage. Yet the message the FDA gave to the public only months later, after three private meetings with the tuna and seafood industry, claims that tuna is perfectly safe."

The federal Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program still has tuna on its basic menu.

Canned albacore, also known as white tuna, has almost three times as much mercury as light tuna. The EWG recommends that pregnant women, women of childbearing age, and children under five avoid albacore altogether. "People eating this tuna will exceed safe exposure levels by a wide margin."

And what about men? The EWG’s Web site offers a "Tuna Calculator." According to its calculations, a 170-pound man can safely eat 2.5 cans of light tuna a week, or one can of albacore, "assuming that every can of tuna has an average amount of mercury." If the man eats other seafood during that week, he should eat less tuna.

And tuna’s not the only high-mercury fish ignored by the FDA: Grouper, sea trout, orange roughy, and bluefish all have higher levels of mercury than tilefish, according to the FDA’s own test results, obtained by the EWG through the Freedom of Information Act.

Another problem with the advisory, says the EWG, is that the FDA’s safeguards "are designed to protect an average-sized woman eating an average fish contaminated with an average amount of methylmercury that decays in her body at an average rate." The EWG points out that these ideal conditions rarely exist in real life. Since 10 percent of US women (and 20 percent of Maine women) of childbearing age already have dangerously high levels of mercury in their bodies, the advisory’s recommendations actually put them at greater risk.

The US government has, historically, been inconsistent about what constitutes a "safe" level of mercury. In 1979, the FDA doubled its maximum "safe" limit after being sued by the fishing industry. It is currently in the process of re-evaluating its standards, according to the FDA Web site. And the EWG reports that the "EPA’s safe exposure estimate for methylmercury has dropped twice in the past 16 years, as new science has identified adverse effects in children exposed in the womb at lower and lower doses."

Some doubt the government’s currently established thresholds of safety. Dr. Joseph Py, a DO specializing in Environmental Medicine, who, until recently, practiced in Maine, asserts "There’s no safe level [in the body], because it shouldn’t be there."

But health-conscious women may want to eat fish for the protein, omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin D, and other nutrients which make fish "an exceptionally good food for pregnant mothers and their developing babies," according to the EWG. Can a pregnant woman rely on her friendly local fishmonger to advise her on safe eating guidelines? The man behind the counter one day at Hannaford on Forest Avenue proved to have good knowledge about the riskiest fish. When asked if fish clerks are trained in safe-eating guidelines, however, he said no.

His wife may be pregnant; his interest was personal.

Wild Oats actually has a bright yellow "Consumer Advisory" on display above the fish counter, which the clerk said is mandatory for every Wild Oats. The Advisory gives some clear guidelines. However, its guidelines are based on the FDA’s inadequate recommendations. It does suggest that pregnant and nursing women, women who may become pregnant, and young children should limit their consumption of fresh and frozen tuna. But in smaller print it adds, inaccurately, "Mercury levels in canned tuna vary, but on average are lower than levels in many other fish."

Wonder where they got that idea.

Government inconsistency and misinformation is putting fetuses and small children at risk. Bush’s proposed rollbacks might more realistically be called paybacks, presenting the appearance that supporting electric utilities companies is more important to the Administration than supporting human health. According to the online news digest, The Daily Mislead, "White House records show that while utility representatives were invited to discuss the mercury emission proposal with the White House several times this fall [2003], no consumer- or public-health groups were included." Bush’s elite fundraising group, the Pioneers, includes five executives or lobbyists for Southern Company, a coal-burning utility, and an executive from FirstEnergy. Two representatives from the coal-mining industry are also included as Pioneers.

Mercury is one of the most toxic substances in the world, more toxic than lead or arsenic. While Maine leads the way in efforts to "virtually eliminate" mercury, still the dangerous neurotoxin is a ubiquitous presence in the daily lives of Mainers. In addition to its prevalence in thermometers bought here before 2001, thermostats and barometers, switches in cars and major appliances, and dental amalgam fillings, mercury can also be found in fluorescent light bulbs, alkaline batteries, vaccines, even light-up kids’ shoes.

Mercury exposure is often subtle, with diverse symptoms — including weakness, memory problems, headaches, irritability, insomnia, nervousness, joint pains, tremors, and changes in vision or hearing — arising so gradually few sufferers make the connection. Kay Meyers suffered through more than six years of terrible, degenerative health problems before she found a doctor who identified the source of her troubles. Her efforts to eradicate mercury from her body are starting to pay off. Though uncertain about possible long-term or permanent effects, she has gained back the weight she lost, and feels stronger now than she has in a long time.

A recent report from a study in Florida concluded that "strict government controls of emissions can produce dramatic improvements in much less time than scientists once assumed." And Dr. Evers’ studies appear to support this finding. After two years of crackdowns on mercury emissions at three incinerators in southern New Hampshire, biologists from the BioDiversity Research Institute have already found "dramatic differences" in the blood levels of mercury in area loons.

The New England Zero Mercury Campaign gave Maine a B+ on its 2003 "Report Card," suggesting "more action from the national level is needed." Senator Susan Collins’s Mercury Reduction Act addresses the problem of surplus mercury by authorizing the EPA to retire surplus mercury from military and industrial settings, establishing a federal task force to establish long-term solutions for mercury disposal, and funding a national thermometer-exchange program.

And Maine’s two representatives, Tom Allen and Mike Michaud, have appealed to EPA administrator Michael Leavitt to hold a public hearing in New England to hear concerns about the Administration’s rollbacks. A date has not been set, however. The congressmen also urged a 30-day extension on the public comment period. Concerned citizens can call Leavitt, himself, to comment, at (202) 564-4700.

In a time when fish advisories become part of what gets taken for granted in America, Maine’s condition as the dumping ground for airborne mercury from Midwestern coal-fired plants may motivate its people to lead the way once again.

Jennifer Lunden can be reached at jenniferlunden@hotmail.com

This is Part one of a two-part special report on mercury in Maine. Part two, which will appear in the issue of February 27, will address the controversy over the safety of mercury dental amalgams and more closely examine the difficulty, in Maine, of being diagnosed or treated for mercury toxicity.