Mercury pollution

Not only do they spew carbon dioxide, but most of our thermal plants are giving out mercury which is highly toxic and has a negative effect on children’s growth.

A study has found that coal-fired plants in the US have put out more mercury into the environment now than in 2006. Twenty tons of mercury, a neurotoxin that affects brain development in fetuses, were released into the air by these top fifty offenders. Coal-fired plants account for 40% of all mercury emissions, the largest single source of mercury in air.

The 600 plus coal-fired power plants in the United States, which produce over half of the country’s electricity, burn 1 billion tons of coal and release 98,000 pounds (44 metric tons) of mercury into the air each year. Power plants yield an additional 81,000 pounds of mercury pollution in the form of solid waste, including fly ash and scrubber sludge, and 20,000 pounds of mercury from “cleaning” coal before it is burned. In the US alone, coal-fired power plants pollute the environment with some 200,000 pounds of mercury annually.

Low-level mercury poisoning is so prevalent, it is estimated that six percent of woman have enough mercury in their bodies to cause neurological damage to their unborn fetuses. The more coal gets burned, the more mercury is released into the environment.

The mercury given out is deposited on land and water. Biological processes change much of the deposited mercury into methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin that humans and other organisms readily absorb. Methylmercury easily travels up the aquatic food chain, accumulating at higher concentrations at each level.

According to the EIP report, mercury removal at coal-fired plants is possible with current technologies. Activated carbon injection, a sort of mercury-hungry sponge placed in the smokestack, can reduce mercury pollution by ninety percent in some instances. Combined with other technologies—sulfur dioxide scrubbers, selective catalytic reduction, fabric filters—the mercury output can be even further reduced.

(But the inescapable fact is that even if pollution scrubbers in modern smokestacks do reduce air pollution, they do nothing to help the coal miners who die each year in mine accidents or from diseases brought on by breathing hazardous coal dust.)

The scary part is that mercury pollution is not bound by regions and can travel as far as from China to Oregon. Airborne mercury emitted by these facilities is deposited anywhere from within a few hundred kilometers of the smokestacks to across continents, far from its source.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for nations to go for safe and abundant renewable sources?