Levels of Mercury in Women Increase Dramatically During Bush's Term in Office; Superfund in Super Trouble
American Progress: Under the Radar

MERCURY RISING: A new national study conducted by the University of North Carolina shows a whopping 21 percent of all women of child-bearing age have mercury levels in their bodies that exceed federal health standards. That's almost double the rate of the last study conducted in 2000, which concluded 12 percent of women had levels which were too high. The Bush White House has relaxed mercury regulations in recent years. It also let industry lobbyists write the regulations – the EPA's mercury emission rules, which were written this year, contained "at least a dozen paragraphs [that] were lifted, sometimes verbatim, from the industry suggestions."

SUPERFUND IN SUPER TROUBLE: Bad news for the environment: Thirty-four Superfund projects in 19 states will go unfunded this year. Superfund, the government's toxic cleanup program, is facing historic budget shortfalls which were exacerbated when the Bush administration ended the tax on corporate polluters that funded the program. Reps. John D. Dingell (D-MI) and Hilda L. Solis (D-CA), who demanded last August "that the EPA describe the full impact of the budget shortfalls, said yesterday that the agency has yet to give Congress a full accounting. 'EPA's failure to inform Congress and the public about the site specific needs of the Superfund program in a timely manner makes it much more difficult to get the support necessary to address this serious problem,' the two lawmakers said."


Removing Mercury From Your System

Some would have you believe that once mercury is in your body, it is impossible to remove.  That is not necessarily the case.

A search of the web brought up some information on the natural food products, chlorella and spirulina, which are often used for cleansing and detoxification.  Take a look here.