http://www.salon.com/news/feature/20...ury/print.html

Extract

Millions of fetuses whose mothers eat fish are being exposed to
brain-damaging mercury. But critics charge the Bush administration's
regulations are like bailing the ocean with a thimble.

"Children who suffer the consequences of methylmercury toxicity often
appear like other children who may have been affected for a genetic
reason," explains Leo Trasande, the assistant director of the Mount
Sinai School of Medicine's Center for Children's Health and the
Environment in New York. "A child with mental retardation may have had a
significant environmental exposure in the perinatal period. But there
are no hallmarks." One study found that an affected child could score
lower on IQ tests by as little as .20 of a point to as much as 24 points.

While the Bush administration cajoles women to follow its fish warnings,
it's proved unwilling to take on the root of the problem. Fish, after
all, are only the pathway of mercury to our bloodstreams. Coal-fired
power plants, in the United States and abroad, are the largest source of
man-made mercury pollution. But Bush and company stand in the way of
international efforts to prevent mercury pollution and are doing little
the stop it at home.