Classical Values :: Banning Mercury

March 01, 2009

Banning Mercury

The Obama Administration is working on a treaty to cut mercury pollution.

The Obama administration has reversed years of U.S. policy by calling for a treaty to cut mercury pollution, which it described as the world's gravest chemical problem.

Some 6,000 tons of mercury enter the environment each year, about a third generated by power stations and coal fires. Much settles into the oceans where it enters the food chain and is concentrated in predatory fish like tuna.

Children and fetuses are particularly vulnerable to poisoning by the toxic metal, which can cause birth defects, brain damage and peeling skin.

Daniel Reifsnyder, the deputy assistant secretary of state for environment and sustainable development, told a global gathering of environmental ministers in Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday that the United States wants negotiations on limiting mercury to begin this year and conclude within three.

Ah. Another attack on coal fired electrical generation. And no plans to ramp up a replacement for their base load generating capacity.

Mercury is also widely used in chemical production and small-scale mining.

And an attack on the chemical industry to boot. Although I must say that keeping it from small scale miners might be a good idea.

While substitutes exist for almost all industrial processes that require mercury, more than 50 percent of mercury emissions come from coal-fueled power plants, complicating efforts to regulate it in countries that rely on coal for power.

A U.S.-drafted proposal obtained by The Associated Press would form a negotiating committee in conjunction with the U.N. environment program to help countries reduce their mercury use, clean up contaminated sites and find environmentally sound ways to store mercury. The European Union has already banned mercury exports starting in 2011. The U.S. has a similar ban that will be effective 2013, legislation that was sponsored by Obama when he was a U.S. senator.

If mercury exports are baned where will we get the mercury needed for CFL light bulbs? How will we be able to import those bulbs? If we want to produce those bulbs in the US where will the mercury come from?

And what does the Obama administration intend to do about volcanoes?

Natural sources such as volcanoes are responsible for approximately half of atmospheric mercury emissions.

And that is not even the best of it. Integrated circuits are dependent on gold wires to connect the chips to the package they are housed in. And mercury is critical to the extraction of gold from the ore.

The three largest point sources for mercury emissions in the U.S. are the three largest gold mines.

You know it appears that Mr. Obama and his cohorts are flying blind. Instead of doing research on replacements for mercury in various industrial processes they are just going to ban it and hope for the best.

I particularly like this view of the situation by Marcus Aurelius: "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

Cross Posted at Power and Control

posted by Simon on 03.01.09 at 10:39 AM

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Comments

They do not understand economic, or science for that matter.

LYNNDH · March 1, 2009 12:07 PM

Well, broken clocks are right twice a day, unless they're 24 hour clocks, in which case it's only once a day. Or they're digital clocks, in which case they don't really display the time and are never either right, or wrong. And unless they're broken in such a...

I'm over analyzing again I suspect, which is to say that at least on ONE case I think that the Oblamo Administration is on to something here--Mercury IS a serious problem, and one that we CAN do something about. The biggest is to simply switch from Coal to modern, clean, safe nuclear power.

Then use the ABUNDANCE of energy that would throw off to figure out how to keep mercury from the other processes less a problem.

Oh, and just because the source is "natural" (the volcanos) doesn't lessen the toxicity.

We *do* have environmental problems, both world wide (mercury and other heavy particulates from coal) and on a local scale (solvents and certain "aromatic hydrocarbons" (not all aromatic hydrocarbons are a problem, but some are)), and to bury ones head in the sand about them would be just as wrong as over-reacting.

Petro · March 1, 2009 12:10 PM

"natural" (the volcanos) doesn't lessen the toxicity.

No, but it does indicate that there is tolerance. All poison is dose related. A molecule of cyanide will not kill you (in fact your own body produces it) two gallons of water drunk in less than an hour can kill you.

Radiation is natural. Too much can kill you, but surprisingly not enough may compromise your immune system. The body is designed to fight the harm natural radiation causes. With out that to fight the immune system might go to sleep. We do know that acute sublethal doses of radiation do improve immune system performance.

And note what I said: research and development must go into substitutes. However, incremental progress is not as exciting as a ban.

M. Simon · March 1, 2009 12:28 PM

I think that the real danger (and only good result from this) would be in the little "small scale mining" throwaway. Central American gold miners mix ore with straight mercury (by hand, or at least foot) and then burn the mercury off into the atmosphere with cheap butane torches. That is horribly polluting (and the mercury vapor doesn't do them any good either.)

Of course, it means taking away the livelihood of poor brown people, which I am usually against. But mercury vapor is the only really harmful form of mercury, and they make gobs of it where it wasn't there before, for no good purpose.

Phelp · March 1, 2009 02:50 PM

"And what does the Obama administration intend to do about volcanoes?"

Great question. I think this falls into the same category as making the seas recede, etc.

The Great Stimulator has already claimed to usurp the powers of Poseidon, now he will assume Vulcan's powers as well.

foutsc · March 1, 2009 03:50 PM

This is all such a red herring. The REAL reason for banning mercury is the same reason for banning any industrial metal - without it industrial production will be crippled. That is their real goal.

Do you notice it is always children that must be protected? Just as with lead.
I have intimate knowledge of lead. I worked with it for 30 years as a letterpress printer.
We had Linotype and Ludlow machines with molten lead that vented fumes 24/7 into the press room. We handled it daily, yet several years ago I had my lead level tested, and it was virtually zero. Those few old printers who ended up at the printers home in Colorado with lead poisoning were usually smokers who would lay their lit cigs on lead "ashtrays" and thus consume it into their lungs.
But because some poor miners child in Idaho was exposed to massive doses of lead which stunted him, lead was banned in paint. So now millions of dollars of imported toys are also tossed because of very minor amounts of lead.

Yes, our society is insane.

Frank · March 1, 2009 11:39 PM

I should be dead now, or at least have an IQ no higher than 40. It was a fun day in my childhood when a mercury thermometer got broken. Those little balls of silver were, um... mercurial.

Heck, if, as a child, I hadn't played with mercury, breathed the smoke from the wood fire or the fumes from the coal furnace heating the house, not to mention the ever present diesel fumes, I'd probably have an IQ of 180! (ha!)

Maybe half (I'm guessing) of my problems stem from a hefty dose of radiation I got as a child as a treatment for tinea capitis. The other half (again, I'm guessing) stem from bariatric surgery.

Considering everything I played with and medical treatments (standard at the time) I got as a child, plus my maladaptive adult desire to be thin, it's a wonder I'm still alive.

At least I didn't eat any lead paint. We were too poor to paint the house :-)

Donna B. · March 1, 2009 11:42 PM

.
When I was a kid, in my dad's workshop he had a little bottle about 4 inches high filled with mercury, we played with it a lot, it's amazing stuff.
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
outlaw all chemicals

if they are unsafe to eat
no matter how useful
.

USpace · March 4, 2009 12:55 AM