Mar 22, 2005: Culture of life: "Although President Bush claims to care deeply about a 'culture of life,' his administration is ignoring evidence that proves its mercury policy could endanger an entire generation of unborn children.

The Environmental Protection Agency paid for and peer-reviewed a Harvard study proving that the benefits of implementing strict controls on mercury released into the environment far outweighed the costs of those controls. Mercury, which is released into the air, deposited in water, absorbed by fish, and then consumed by humans, can cause severe brain damage, especially to the fetuses of pregnant females.

The Harvard study estimated that strict controls on mercury could save up to $5 billion a year in health care costs. But the administration ignored that study and claimed that those controls would result in just one one-hundredth of the savings. But those numbers reflected only the effects of eating freshwater fish, when most of the fish consumed in the U.S. comes from the ocean."

(Via DNC: Kicking Ass.)