Time to look at who is really responsible for America's health problems!

[happy_liberal]

Coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury pollution, generating more than 40 percent of U.S. emissions. Mercury released into the air settles in rivers and lakes, where it moves through the food chain to the fish that people eat.

Mercury exposure can harm the brain development of infants and children. Each year more than 300,000 babies may have an increased risk of learning disabilities as a result of exposure to mercury before birth, the report said.

"Even though the technology exists today to dramatically reduce the mercury pollution, the U.S. power industry has delayed cleanup and barely made a dent in the power plant emissions,"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7954887

[shraby]

1. All the problems can be summed up in two words

Big Business.

[WinkyDink]

2. See you, and raise you two: Industrial Revolution.

[RexS]

4. One word

lobbyists. How about three - special interest groups.

[meow2u3]

5. Another two words:

Industry lobbyists.

[Warpy]

3. You might be too young to remember what it was like

when houses were heated by coal, but I sure do. There was a grey cloud hanging just above the rooftops, the air was full of fly ash, when you blew your nose it came out black, and the stink was one I'll never forget. Middle class homes had furnaces with automatic stokers and poor folks used coal fireplaces in every room. The conversion to oil and gas for home heat made the most dramatic difference in air quality I've ever seen.

While power plants foul the air locally, they don't do nearly the dirty job that coal home heating did. You only have to look at pictures of Beijing in the winter to see what it was once like here, the air at ground level a hazy yellow and that dense cloud just over the rooftops.

I think you're overstating the case that the mercury we're getting now is the cause of all human ills. It's certainly a contributor near power plants, especially those in areas prone to temperature inversions, but it can be argued that auto emissions are a more serious health hazard for most folks in urban areas.

That doesn't mean that new scrubbers shouldn't be added to coal plants, of course they should. No one should have to suffer locally so that folks miles away can turn the lights on at night.

[HillbillyBob]

6. I remember my grand parents house when it was heated by coal

soot every where no matter how much cleaning Gramma did.

Actually I live more than 100 miles downwind from 2 coal plants and I can smell the smoke and see the soot on my window sills.
I also have asthma attacks when the wind direction is right and have to close up the house..and I cannot afford to pay electric bill for air conditioning..

We have coal plants in several directions some less than 20 miles away..the wind rarely blows in from that direction though.

Mercury is every bit as bad as stated, plus coal smoke has carbon,arsenic,uranium and several other heavy metals that go out in the smoke and filter out of the air with the rain into soils hundreds of miles away. It settles on crops and soaks in, it settles in rivers which are our drinking water in many cases.
Our water comes from a deep well so its not such and issue here.
We plan a rain catchment system for our garden since we don't want to put to much load on our well.
I have been investigating what we would have to do to filter out the pollutants rather than put on our crops. I painted the roof white with a special sealer and went upo to check the gutters the other day and could see a fine black soot (as compared to the normal dirt that sometimes blows up there which is red from the clay soil here).
Remember Acid Rain how many trees and fish and other things did it kill or affect?

[happy_liberal]

7. over 100 miles away and suffering asthma attacks

I am so sorry. I had Asthma when I lived in California and I KNOW how horrible it is. You feel like you are going to die any second. Horrible. My Asthma miraculously disappeared after moving to Alaska.

[HillbillyBob]

8. And there is no way we are going to move to Alaska!

It was all we could do to move to this place and buy it. Due to my other health issues, there is no medical care for me there as is I have to go 50 miles to see a dr. We can't afford to live closer to the city..which is where my asthma was even worse than here. We moved out here go to be in cleaner air and it is most of the time.
In the city I could not even sit outside on a summer day because of exhaust smoke from cars /ozone on top of the smell of coal burning.
I was actually amazed that I could id the smell. I lived in So Fla for almost 19 yrs and didn't have much problem with asthsma except when the Everglades were on fire, being near the ocean and getting that breeze seemed to be relatively clean. SoFla had gotten too crazy and we kept having our jobs outsourced.....

[happy_liberal]

9. heh

Alaska is not for everyone...