7 simple questions about mercury

Brut America

It stays airborne for a year … and its exposure could lead to tremors, mood disorders, and memory issues.   These are 7 simple questions on mercury, answered by an expert.  Paid partnership with @nrdc.org.

Transcript

00:00Mercury is basically a silvery liquid at room temperature.

00:11It's the only metal that is actually liquid at room temperature.

00:18Mercury used to be used in various forms of traditional medicine.

00:22We're talking about ointments and pills and like elixirs for people to deal with their

00:27health problems.

00:28Mercury's ability to dissolve other metals led to its use in dental fillings and also

00:34in the production of other products like mirrors.

00:38Mercury used to be used in the production of electrical equipment, things like fluorescent

00:42lamps.

00:43So mercury really used to have a lot of different applications until it was realized that it

00:46had these toxic effects on human health.

00:52The toxic effects in terms of modern society were not really widely appreciated until the

00:56late 19th century and early 20th century.

01:00And we've been understanding the neurodegenerative, the effects upon the brain.

01:06Mercury can do real damage to the central nervous system.

01:10It can also lead to really scary symptoms like tremors, mood disorders and irritability,

01:17problems with your memory and even changes in your personality.

01:20Prolonged exposure to mercury can lead to kidney damage, even kidney failure.

01:26Inhalation of mercury vapor in the air that we breathe can very clearly lead to respiratory

01:30problems, things like coughing or chest pain, even just kind of general difficulty breathing.

01:40Mercury is a naturally occurring material in the earth's crust and it's part of the

01:44fossil fuels that we're burning, especially coal.

01:47So when we burn things like coal and oil, we essentially mobilize and release that mercury

01:53contamination into the air.

01:56Once it's in the air, it can actually persist and stay airborne for more than a year and

02:01end up kind of accumulating in different ecosystems.

02:04Mercury in the atmosphere can be transported over like really far distances, anywhere from

02:09like a few feet to, you know, halfway around the globe, which is why even if you don't

02:14have a coal-fired power plant right near you, you might still be at risk of mercury contamination

02:19because the winds help to disperse that air pollution.

02:25Power plants are actually the biggest source of mercury pollution that people are exposed

02:30to in the U.S.

02:32Vulnerable communities living near coal-fired power plants that are burning coal that contains

02:36mercury, even if you're not directly near a plant, you live downwind from one, you're

02:40also at elevated risk of mercury exposure.

02:44It's very clear from the Environmental Protection Agency's own modeling that exposure to mercury

02:48is a life or death issue.

02:49EPA's estimates of the health benefits of the current mercury and air toxic standards

02:54indicate that that control of mercury air pollution is helping to prevent up to 11,000

03:01premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and about 130,000 asthma attacks every year.

03:08Those health benefits are especially important in younger folks, babies, infants, those whose

03:14organ systems are still developing can incur special harm from mercury air pollution.

03:19The neurodegenerative effects of mercury, a toxin, are lifelong, and so reducing exposure,

03:25especially for those early in life, is a really important public health priority.

03:32The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is using its own authority under the Clean Air

03:37Act, one of our bedrock environmental laws, to address a whole bunch of different types

03:43of air pollution, including mercury.

03:45Current mercury and air toxic standards, MATS, have very clear and gigantic health benefits

03:50for people, and it's important that we strengthen those controls on mercury to achieve even

03:55larger public health protection.

03:57Even as some coal-fired power plants have cleaned up their act thanks to the MATS controls,

04:02there are still far too many that are emitting unacceptable levels of mercury and other hazardous

04:07air pollution into the air that we breathe.

04:10The big picture is that we can do more.

04:11We can do better by our children.

04:13We can do better by people living with chronic health conditions that mercury makes even

04:17harder to deal with by implementing even stronger MATS standards right now.

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