It moves up the food ladder. It is estimated that as many as 1.6 million Americans, mostly women of child-bearing years and young children, are at risk from eating fish. Ohio and 39 other states have issued advisories against fish because of mercury levels. The U.S. EPA announced late last year that it intends to set limits on mercury emissions from power plants, perhaps by 2003 or 2004. At present, there is no means to remove mercury from power-plant emissions, although some pilot projects are under way.
Utilities are concerned about mercury, but they have their own message on the threat.
There are also no federal limits on such tiny soot, although the U.S. EPA has proposed imposing such limits, along with tighter limits on ozone. The new limits are needed because health effects are obvious at lower levels than the current 1978 standards for smog or the 1987 limits for soot, the EPA said. That proposal has been blocked by appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court by Ohio and other parties. The EPA proposal is the most documented decision the agency has ever made, backed up by 250 medical studies, she said. The tighter limits on ozone would affect 50 million Americans with breathing problems, she said.