We invest tremendous amounts of love, time, energy, and fiscal resources in our children, yet we are not protecting them from the possibility of being poisoned by a potent neurotoxin. The critics of inaction are right. We can't tell to what degree kids with learning disorders, coordination problems, hearing, sight or speech problems have been harmed by mercury pollution. We can't tell you how many little Susies or Johnnys would have been gifted physicians, poets, or teachers, but who now have no chance of reaching their full potential because they were exposed to mercury in the womb or during early childhood. Just as with lead, we know that mercury has much graver effects on children at very low levels then it does on adults.
Mercury poisoning is insidious.
Because we can't measure how much potential has been lost, some special interests will say that we should continue to do nothing. Our responsibility is to establish what the public interest requires to protect the health of persons. We have enough information to act. We don't have to wait until we have a body count. We just need the will to act.