New Mexico is regional leader in emissions.
Most schoolchildren are first introduced to Mercury-god of commerce, travel and thievery-during the mythology component of a literature course. But the Environmental Protection Agency has grown concerned that mythology books aren't the only place in schools that
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students encounter mercury. Barometers, thermometers and other objects in classrooms contain the toxin. And, when
mercury and children collide, often the result is spills that few schools are equipped to adequately clean up, exposing kids to a substance found to cause extensive neurological damage in fetuses, infants and youths. Because there has recently been an outbreak of such spills nationwide, the EPA has issued an alert about the presence of mercury in schools.
While Santa Fe schoolchildren's exposure to mercury is likely minimal, they remain at risk in the surrounding habitat. Now that the EPA has decided to relax mercury emission standards for coal-fired plants, mercury's presence in the state may heighten. It's a move that has prompted nine attorneys general, including New Mexico's Patricia Madrid, to file suit.
Jon Goldstein, spokesman for the State Environment Department, explained the EPA's plan. "They're proposing to do a cap and trade," he says. "If there is a plant, say, in New Mexico that wants to be able to go above the mercury standard, the plant here in New Mexico could buy credits from, say, an Ohio plant to put out more mercury. That localized mercury emission would create a hotspot where the people in that area would be exposed to the high impact that comes along with it."
In expressing her objection to the plan, Attorney General Madrid cited children's health concerns in a press statement about the ruling. KP Stoller, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, echoes those worries. "The government regulations are far too generous in favor of the coal power plants," he says. "The general level of mercury in the environment has been steadily on the rise, so everyone is exposed to increasing levels of mercury."
One reason the EPA's ruling is a pressing concern in New Mexico is that this state is a regional leader in mercury emissions. "It's in the air," Stoller says. "It's in the food we eat. This type of toxin is obviously of concern because it's been implicated in multiple
neurodevelopmental problems from autism to Alzheimer's disease." Stoller says low doses of mercury exposure over a long
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period of time may be more dangerous than short-term large exposure. "It should be considered quasi-radioactive," Stoller says. "It's not worth the risk and that includes chemistry labs."
Concerns over mercury arose more than a year ago when the EPA recommended pregnant women limit fish consumption because the presence of mercury in seafood can result in motor, visual and memory impairments in children. But Anita Gerlach, Santa Fe High science co-chairwoman, says the effects of mercury have been well known for years. When she began working in the district in 1989, removing mercury and other dangerous substances from Santa Fe schools quickly became a priority for her. "Anyone who has knowledge of science had plenty of information that they shouldn't have mercury in schools," she says. Gerlach subsequently spent five years attempting to rid mercury from classrooms. As a result, local schools now use alcohol thermometers rather than their mercury counterparts. Moreover, tests for mercury in schools have not revealed any significant traces of the substance, Gerlach says.
Despite Gerlach's efforts, there is no official district-wide prohibition of mercury. The mercury ban is an unwritten rule. If there were a mercury spill, however, spill kits are available to remove all remnants of the substance. But not all teachers who work with chemicals receive the routine chemical safety training required to clean up spills, Gerlach says. And some seem to have the relaxed attitude towards mercury of which the EPA has been accused. "Some teachers take it lightly because they played with mercury as a kid," Gerlach says. "They ignore the warnings."
