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The
Associated Press
5/20/02 5:10 PM
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- A task force designed to tackle mercury pollution in
the Gulf of Mexico and in other waters off American shores is being formed
by the White House, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions announced Monday.
Sessions, a Mobile Republican, said he wrote to President Bush on Friday
calling for federal action to confront mercury contamination in the Gulf,
including high levels of mercury in seafood.
"We felt this needed a presidential response," Sessions said.
"It's a big step forward as it has the imprimatur of the White
House."
Sessions announced the formation of the interagency work group at a Mobile
forum on mercury.
The task force will operate under the auspices of the National Science and
Technology Council, which handles federal science-related issues.
The senator said he has asked the White House to include representatives
from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the
Interior, the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration, the Department of Commerce and other federal
agencies.
Sessions credited a series of Mobile Register stories about mercury
contamination in the Gulf for pushing the issue onto the national agenda.
The stories found that several species of Gulf fish, including ling,
amberjack and redfish, may be so contaminated with toxic methylmercury
that Food and Drug Administration standards would prohibit selling them to
the public.
The Register also reported that federal and state authorities have not
tested most Gulf fish enough to know whether they are safe to eat. And
hair tests of coastal residents sponsored by the paper last year found
many had mercury levels from five to 10 times the EPA's safe level for
mercury in the human body.
Sessions said mercury has proven difficult for federal regulators to
address because many agencies with conflicting agendas are involved.
Sessions said he hoped the
president's new group will provide someone to oversee the regulators.
One of the interagency confrontations regarding mercury pits the EPA
against the FDA over the amount of mercury-contaminated seafood a human
can eat before suffering ill effects.
FDA regulators believe a person can safely consume four times as much
mercury as EPA scientists believe is safe. Both agencies claim they
base their standards in science, though the National Academy of Sciences
has endorsed only
the more protective EPA standard.
The Commerce Department, which controls the nation's fisheries, and the
Interior Department, which regulates the offshore oil and gas fields
through the Minerals Management Service, may also find themselves on
opposite sides over mercury pollution around oil and gas rigs in the Gulf.
The minerals management service has argued that the rig pollution is not a
threat to fish or fishermen in the Gulf, while the Commerce Department's
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration recently announced new mercury testing of Gulf
fish, citing federal data that indicates the rigs may indeed be
contaminating Gulf sea life.
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The
Mercury Forum website will be continually updated with recommendations
from the two-day event, discussion, and frequently asked questions.
Log on to www.masgc.org/mercury/
for more information.
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