mercury

Signs Of The Times

1 Jun 2011

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Sometimes I feel like I grew up on the ledge – a ledge that was propelled into action by the signs of the times. With the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and the Women’s Movement simmering to a boiling point. It was ALL personal. It was ALL political.

Ledge-Leaning

In many ways, I stopped jumping off ledges when I had kids. I’m still easily riled up, but politics moved to the back burner. The choices changed from demanding equal pay and peace on earth, to whether or not to use cloth diapers, and what school to send the kids to. Believe me, there were many worthy ledges to jump off of, but most were personal – kids, jobs, house. Politically, the most ledgework I could muster up was to rant to my family and vote with my conscience.

My 20-something year old children are also ledge-leaning. If I’m willing to drink a little beer and hum along with the guitar into the wee morning hours, I can engage them in a lively discussion about eco-energy issues like, dirty coal, fracking, mercury testing, and voting to keep the Clean Air Act from being rendered impotent.

Signs Of The Times

“Yes, yes, mom – We’ll vote!” They will, but they are worried about another “eco” –  a sign of their times. Their minds are filled with the economics of finding and securing jobs. So many recent college graduates are buried under this weight.

Growing up in the ’60’s and ’70′s, we jumped off ledges. The work got done. Attitudes changed. The results were fair and everlasting, or so we thought…

Outrage

Most people were so outraged by prejudice and segregation that laws got changed. Currently, on the clean air front, more non-white children live with the highest concentrations of air pollution. 60% of Latino children are more likely to suffer from asthma and other environmental illnesses…and three times as likely to die of asthma? How fair is that?

Most people were so outraged about the inequality of women that laws got changed. I couldn’t be more elated that women are in the political arena. We fought hard for political equality, but not all female politicians have their priorities straight. Just last week, Sarah Palin proudly announced to a group of veterans and TV cameras, “I love that smell of the emissions.” It is unfathomable to me that a mom of 5 could debunk the scientific knowledge that greenhouse gas emissions have increased by a record amount last year, leaving us with the highest carbon output in history. How fair is that?

Most people were so outraged about an unjust war that they ended it. Now our wars are based on energy politics. Some politicians, backed by energy corporations have much to lose and little to gain from leading us into a truly clean energy revolution. Instead of looking to, and legislating for squeaky clean renewable energy, some politicians are putting the Clean Air Act on the chopping block to protect their “assets.” How fair is that?

Ledgework

Our kids are teeter-tottering on a dangerous ledge. Are you ready to do a little ledgework for your kids and help keep the air clean for our kids to breathe? Those of you with young children will have to jump off the ledge for them. Those of us with older children will need to give them a hefty nudge because their generation is rightfully distracted. Here’s what you can do to help save the Clean Air Act.

It will be a sign of “good” times when our kids thank us by texting, “Hey Mom – Peace, Love and Clean Air.”

Photo credit: Ted Fink  Drawing: Liza Donnelly

No CommentsCategory: Eco-Friendly, Environment, Family, Health, Inspiration, Kids, Sustainable Living

Mercury Mama’s Sweet Dream

3 May 2011

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Many moons ago, when I was a young pregnant teacher, I taught in a private school that was housed in an old Victorian building. The brick building had many charming features such as fireplaces, ornate moldings and glittering chandeliers in the classrooms. It also had bookcases high up to the ceiling. In my classroom – the Language Arts room, the top shelves held vintage children’s books, some rare first edition classics. The Social Studies classroom had ancient yellowing maps that dangled down from the upper shelves. On the tippy top shelf of the Science room, far out of reach from small hands, stood vintage glass beakers with unidentified liquids from years before when the building had been a doctor’s office.

One bright spring day, I poked my 7-month belly into the Science room to lunch with a fellow teacher. A few kids joined us to show off a cool stick they found in the woods by the playground. The stick looked just like a boomerang. They were raring to fling it, and had come to ask for permission. Before an explanation on why it would not be appropriate to set the stick into flight, one of the children impulsively flung it. The stick hit the top shelf broadside, sending the antique beakers and their contents smashing down. There was glass and liquid everywhere.

Within minutes, the other teacher, kids and I were whisked off to the hospital. An administrator had called when he caught wind of what happened. I had never been a patient in a hospital, let alone set foot in a screaming ambulance. The kids needed me not to freak out, so I stayed relatively calm. Until…

In a composed manner, the EMT explained the seriousness of the situation to the children. That was the exact moment my blissful, uneventful pregnancy got derailed. In my 29 year-old panicked pregnant state, I heard one of the doctors say we need to watch her for poisoning:

“Mercury and a motherlode of other chemicals could have been lurking in those beakers.”

“MERCURY! Isn’t that the stuff in glass thermometers that you weren’t supposed bite down hard on and break?”

“Yes, there are three kinds…for a pregnant woman, mercury can be especially damaging.”

3 Types Of Mercury

1. Elemental mercury is found in thermometers. The inhalation of fumes from this type of mercury is highly toxic. Mercury can cause significant amounts of neurological damage to babies and children.

2. Mercury salts come from industrial emissions. Breathing or ingesting mercury salts can harm the kidneys.

3. Organic mercury is what leaches into the food chain. Water can become polluted during the manufacturing of certain types of energy production. The mercury can accumulate in shellfish and fish. Organic mercury acts similarly to elemental mercury.

Yikes! Is your heart racing as fast as mine right now? I’m calming myself so I can tell you the rest of the story…

After hours of blood and urine testing and a full ER exam, I was given the green light and told to go home and watch for any unusual symptoms. UNUSUAL SYMPTOMS! With pregnancy dreams hopped up on overdrive, even unprovoked, every possible baby horror was passing through my sleep state. Now ALL of my dreams became punctuated with a capital “M” for MERCURY.

This is the first time I’ve told this story in the 25 years since my daughter was born. We were lucky – there were no “unusual symptoms”. As I am about to celebrate my beautiful, healthy daughter’s birthday (she was born on Mother’s Day weekend), those dreams are coming back to me. Did politicians think when they sided with corporate energy lobbyists to block limits on mercury pollution that we moms wouldn’t notice? Let’s prove them sorely wrong, and stand up for our kids by protecting the Clean Air Act.

Here’s the rub: No matter how old our children become, there are things we can protect them from and things we can’t (wayward boomerangs). Mercury spewing into the bodies of pregnant women and children, and accumulating in our food chain, we must stop.

What do I want for my children this Mother’s Day? Oh, that’s simple: Sweet Clean Air Dreams.

This post is part of the MCAF Blog Carnival: A Mother’s Day Gift. We invite you to join the Carnival and tell us what you want to give your kids for Mother’s Day.

2 CommentsCategory: Education, Family, Inspiration, Kids

Once Upon a Time: It Stunk

27 Apr 2011

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Once upon a time, the auto industry ruled the polluting roost. Not unlike the energy companies today, when automakers were required to clean up their act, they thought there was too much to lose.

Going Forward
Once upon a time, we had no seat belts in our cars. I remember my mother sitting in the backseat of our station wagon with my brother and I to “protect” us. Every time my dad slammed his foot on the brakes, she would flay her arms out to keep us from hitting the back of the front seats. When it was scientifically proven that restraining passengers saved lives, we were buckled tightly into shiny seat belts. Then my mom resumed her rightful place in the front seat. Each year, car restraint systems were checked, tweaked and upgraded for safety. As safety studies mounted, more protective measures were instituted. What was non-existent when I was a kid, we now take for granted: airbags, advanced braking systems, safety glass, firewalls and child car seats.

Once upon a time, when the the tank was filled with gas, the air filled with lethal vapors. Cars ran on leaded gasoline. There were no pollution standards regulating emissions of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons until 1970 when the Clean Air Act was passed. One of its first order of business was a 90% reduction in emissions from new automobiles by 1975 (the year I got my first car). Congress also established the EPA, giving it broad responsibility for regulating motor vehicle pollution.

Going Backwards
Once upon a time, when these safety issues were addressed by the Clean Air Act, the auto industry made a big stink warning us that forcing them to implement safety measures would result in catastrophic manufacturing and financial hardships. They insisted that implementing emissions restrictions would be totally unsustainable. While automakers still balk, they continue to keep in step with the Clean Air Act. With high demands for increased fuel-efficiency cars, would we even consider going backwards?

Going Forwards
Once upon a time, the EPA proposed establishing limits on power plant emissions of mercury, arsenic and other hazardous pollutants. In hopes of continuing to protect our families and lessening the effects of climate change, we’re advocating for tighter laws for facilities that release toxics into the environment.

Going Backwards
Once upon a time, the coal, oil and natural gas industries enjoyed the protection of a political climate that exempted them from safety regulations that would protect our children. Instead of accepting such safety measures like their bi-partisan predecessors who helped pass the Clean Air Act, putting politics over science, these politicians support striking down the Clean Air Act in favor of industries that pollute. What would happen if the auto industry pressured politicians to remove regulations for no seat belts in cars? Would we let that happen?

Going Forwards
Once upon a time, the development and deployment of clean energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal energy were the viable solutions. They still are. Take action and help educate policymakers and the public about renewable energy solutions.

Going Backwards?
Once upon a time, we did not know what was lurking in the air we breathed. We do now – and we’ve got the science to prove it. It just stinks that our children may be heading into a future without the equivalent of seat belts.

4 CommentsCategory: Family, Green Home, Health, Sustainable Living
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