Mercury and Loons

Researchers have said for some time that particles from coal-fired power plants may cause as many as 30,000 premature deaths among humans each year in the United States. Now the Environmental Protection Agency is highlighting another health hazard from coal-burning and incinerators: mercury. Burning coal and trash sends mercury into the atmosphere, where it can be carried hundreds of miles until it falls into lakes and streams. By year’s end, the EPA says there will be new rules to limit mercury emissions. The rules will be phased in, but as far as the state of Maine is concerned they can’t come too soon. Lakes there already register some of the most toxic levels of mercury in the nation, with a telling impact on one particular bird. Maine Public Broadcasting’s Naomi Schalit reports.