Excerpted from the forthcoming book by Anna Tilman
This is a story on how my involvement in mercury began and where it has taken me from a very personal perspective. I call it "my story."
For the past year or so, I have become engulfed, entrenched, immersed and strangely fascinated and horrified by mercury. Whatever information I have uncovered or discovered about mercury, it is never enough and I search for more.
This "addiction" started when I got involved, by my own doing I might add, in a Canada-wide process to set standards for mercury emissions. In a typically fragmented way of perceiving the environment, Canadian governments had embarked on a standards-setting exercise for a limited number of priority substances of concern to human health and the environment. They, along with most modern nations, had deemed mercury one such priority substance.
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Mercury's Health Effects: A Persistent Poison Named after the fleet-footed Roman messenger of the gods, mercury was known to the ancient Chinese and Hindus and has been found in the Egyptian tombs of 1500 BC. Aristotle recorded its use in religious ceremonies in the fourth century BC. Mercury is a highly volatile naturally occurring element, a heavy liquid metal, found in trace amounts throughout the environment: in rocks, soils and oceans. Natural sources such as volcanoes, forest fires, and evaporation from oceans and lakes, release mercury into the environment. Mercury cycles naturally in the environment, from land to air to water. The total global atmospheric mercury burden has increased anywhere from 200% to 500 % since the onset of the industrial age. The typical mercury content of lakes has increased up to seven-fold since industrialization. The concentration of mercury in rain in the Great Lakes Region has increased by about 8% a year over the last 5 years. Acid rain and warm water temperatures favour an increase in mercury levels in water bodies. This increase is clearly attributed to industrial activities such as incineration, coal-fired plants and smelters as well as the widespread use of mercury in numerous products and the disposal and burning of mercury-bearing wastes. These activities have severely altered the natural mercury cycle in a relatively short time. Mercury poses a serious threat to every ecosystem. It is a highly toxic substance in all its forms, capable of impairing the central nervous system and the developing fetus. It is indestructible and persists in the environment for years. There are no known ways to safely eliminate or 'retire' mercury. |
During a telephone conversation that would firm up my involvement as a "stake holder" in the Canada-Wide Standards process for mercury, I was offered a choice: what mercury-emitting sector do you want to be involved in, smelters, incinerators, or electric-power generators? What a dilemma! Choices like these come all too rarely in life. Being the sacrificial environmentalist that I am, I asked where I might be of most value. If the person on the other line knew me at all, the answer would be in an area where the corporate status quo could be challenged. If they didn't know me, I would serve as a slot in the category of a representative from environmental organizations to fulfil the requirements for stake holder representation. The choice became the electric power sector, a rather discrete and polite category that included primarily coal-fired plants.
| Mercury is a substance of which a very small amount may be too much. A mere 1/70th of a teaspoon, about one gram of mercury, a pinhead, is enough to contaminate a 25-acre lake to the point where the fish may be unsafe to eat. |
Knowing full well the limitations of stake holder participation for a volunteer, I engaged in this exercise at first with caution. That didn't last long. I had some knowledge about mercury, that it was a heavy metal, indestructible and extremely toxic. I remembered playing with runaway balls of mercury in physics labs. I was well aware of its effects on fish and wildlife. From a family of "fishers" who generally ate what they caught, I was keenly aware of fish advisories. I knew about Minamata Disease, methylmercury poisoning, in Japan and Grassy Narrows, Ontario. And now I was about to learn more, much more, about mercury, coal-fired plants, and an intransigent industry.
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Methylmercury Mercury takes many forms in the environment: inorganic, organic and elemental. Coal combustion and incineration generate inorganic and elemental mercury. Bacteria and other organisms transform inorganic mercury to organic forms. Inorganic and elemental mercury can be dangerous if inhaled or ingested. Organic mercury (methylmercury and dimethylmercury) is most harmful to human health and wildlife. It is a potent neurotoxin and fetotoxin, easily absorbed orally and in turn easily enters the brain and fetus. When mercury enters water, it is converted to methylmercury by microbial action and is absorbed by plankton. As larger aquatic organisms feed on the plankton, the methylmercury concentrates in their tissues. The concentration of mercury increases in the tissue of succeeding species, bioaccumulating up the food chain. The top predator fish such as salmon, lake trout and walleye have mercury levels millions of times higher than levels found in surrounding waters. Fish consumption is the predominant path of exposure to methylmercury for humans and fish-eating birds and mammals. While there is no scientific dispute about the hazards of high levels of mercury exposure, concern is emerging that even smaller exposures may cause subtle and irreversible damage to the brain and central nervous system, particularly among children and during fetal development. There may also be a synergistic impact with other toxic substances, such as PCBs. |
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Mercury in Fish: Impacts on Humans Concentrations of methylmercury found in many fish have reached a level where consumption can pose threats to human health, especially in the top predator species such as salmon, lake trout, or walleye. Most at risk are women of child bearing age, children and fetuses, and communities where fish is a food staple and the predominant source of protein in the diet, a traditional food source, and an economic resource. Skinning or trimming does not reduce the mercury, nor is mercury removed by cooking. When ingested by pregnant women, even in tiny amounts, methylmercury readily crosses the placenta and targets the developing fetal brain and central nervous system, producing serious developmental delays in walking, talking, hearing and writing. Other impacts include cerebral palsy and mental retardation at high exposure levels. Infants can also be exposed to high levels of methylmercury during breast-feeding.
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At first, the process was so utterly flawed that I questioned my continuance, a common sentiment felt by environmentalists in "participating" in such consultation exercises. While you are invited as a guest to the table, your mere presence is taken to sanctify the process. In reality, when the time for making decisions arrives, you are summarily dismissed from the table. You have a choice: either go along with the window-dressing and get sucked into the vortex of consultation and leave with minimum impact; OR pull open the blinds with all your might and rattle the patriarchy as hard as you can. I went for the latter. Other than knowing that I needed to understand more, gain more insight, be creative, I was just beginning to delve into mercury and power plants with a hunger and passion that would know no bounds.
The more I inquired, read, and was told, the more I had to know – from the very technical aspect of boilers and scrubbers to the cultural and mythical. It's rather encouraging that after all these years, I still thirst for such knowledge, but then knowledge gives power, and I needed all the power I could muster if I were to engage with the people from the power industry. Everywhere I went I would talk about mercury. Sensing my urgency, people usually had a story to tell about their personal awareness of mercury. Gradually, I was collecting more and more stories and I would spread them around, like "a mercury hot-line," and more stories would surface. Mercury was becoming my mantra, and I couldn't or wouldn't let go. My friends thought that I was overly obsessed and obsessing.
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Coal and Mercury Fossil fuels, primarily coal and oil, contain trace amounts of mercury. Coal contains the highest amount of mercury. Upon combustion, mercury is released from coal. The elevated high temperatures in the boiler and the volatility of mercury lead to mercury vaporizing and being emitted from the combustion area as a gas. Virtually no mercury is found in the bottom ash. As the combustion gases pass through the boiler and the air pollution control system, they cool, and small amounts of compounds containing mercury may adsorb on the surface of fine particles. Most likely, mercury will remain in a gaseous phase, as a vapour, and pass through gas cleaning devices to be emitted into the atmosphere. The amount of mercury emitted depends on many factors, such as the amount and type of coal, its mercury content and heating value and the effective emission controls. Nonetheless, mercury is an element and hence can not be destroyed. The amount of mercury in coal prior to combustion should equate with the amount of mercury released into the environment after combustion, whether it is in air, deposited in landfill or incorporated in some way. It is that basic. |
Was I filling a deep void in my life? Was it really as bad as I said? I was beginning to lose dinner invitations and questioning my own sanity and well-being. Mercury, a trickster and trader, elusive and volatile, the messenger of the gods, was becoming my tormenter, as I in turn was becoming its messenger.
In the meantime, I continued to engage in the Canada-Wide Standards consultation process with the electric power sector, but with increasing frustration and impatience. If anything was materializing from the numerous teleconference calls and workshops, it was the solidification of positions or perhaps more appropriately, lack thereof. The consistent inflexibility and reticence of industry was matched by the reluctance of government representatives to demonstrate the fortitude needed to move the discussions to a higher plane, so to speak. The Canada-Wide Standards process was floundering like a ship cast adrift with no captain, no navigator, not even a map or a destination. How could this process ever be expected to accomplish its mission and set a standard that would result in reduction of mercury emissions from coal-fired plants?
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Canadian Mercury Emissions In 1999, estimates for the amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere from the electric power-generating sector are in the order of 2500 kilograms, much higher than previous estimates. Reliance on coal-fired plants has increased in the last few years, but there is no strategy or target in place to drive mercury emissions down. A typical 100-megawatt coal-burning plant emits approximately 10 kilograms of mercury a year. The Ontario Power Generation has estimated its mercury emissions from its coal-fired plants to be about 630,000 grams (that is, 630 kilograms) for the year 1999. Even if this figure underestimates the mercury emissions, it still represents close to a doubling of emissions in three years. |
Despite my misgivings and better judgement, I resolved to stay in the fray and play my cards the way I best know how. I have no illusions about my role in this process. It would continue to be isolating, demanding and emotionally charged and I would be portrayed as a troublemaking irritant and agitator. But what other avenues are there in Canada that would focus on mercury reductions specifically from coal-fired plants? For so many reasons, it was timely and necessary. So be it! I am not one to give up, nor am I easily dismissed. And with all things considered, "to thine own self be true."
As I poured over numerous articles on mercury and more particularly methylmercury poisoning in Iraq, Guatemala, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Canada, I became increasingly incensed over the damage that was inflicted on the affected communities, and in particular, on the children, pregnant women, the unborn, the fish and wildlife. So little of this is publicly known in Canada. Once more, it is the so-called sensitive populations with no voice or power who suffer the most who are easily forgotten. I wanted to reveal the injustices that have been done in the past and continue to be done now and I wanted to name those responsible for the unforgivable travesties. And most importantly, I wanted to bring all of this closer to home.
With mercury as the catalyst, I would set out to ignite public indignation. I would defrock the corporate emperors who in their frenzied pursuit of power and profit continue unabated to spew out their self-serving creed hand-in-hand with toxic chemicals like fire from a dragon, while governments bow down in compliance and render themselves powerless. How can I slay the dragon? What can a lone messenger do?
So I started a campaign. I wanted to tell everyone about mercury and the dirty coal-fired plants – dirty in every way. I drew up a Position Paper that said YES to setting standards and NO to buckling in to the industry agenda of denial and business as usual. I asked groups around the country to sign on and endorse the position paper, and so many did, more than 100 health, environment, labour, public interest groups and First Nations. The message was seeping out, but there had to be more, much more happening to have any effect and make an impact.
It was when the Chief of the Deninu Kue Nation and the Inuit in the North West Territories wrote to me with sincerity and trust, endorsing the position paper, that I realized how strong my emotional intensity and personal commitment to this issue was becoming.
No other endorsements could mean as much or affect me to the same degree as from the native communities in the North. It is their way of life, their food source that is so threatened by contamination from mercury and other hazardous chemicals that originate from industries very far away. They are supporting me in this endeavor to continue to keep the pressure on, to publicize the issue, to strive to make a change.
Back to the home front, to comfort, familiarity, friendship and warmth, back to the Oak Ridges Moraine, the hottest political environmental issue in Ontario, hitting the press every day.
Over a beer in Stouffville, talking about anything and everything, Teresa, my pal, in her ever so thoughtful way, said that she wanted to write a story about a woman who is so taken up, so passionate about mercury and why she is so. My god, how dense – she's talking about me! The subject and object have become inseparable. Before I would be able to write more about mercury, I needed to find my way to write my own story and let it seep out from every part of me.
So this is how the story began to wend its way from my most inner core and unconscious to a conscious state, to become "my story."
I met Peter and his wife Sandy at a Save the Oak Ridges Morraine (STORM) meeting in a cold church basement in November. They lived at Preston Lake, a "kettle lake" on the Oak Ridges Moraine. At first they talked about the particular problems that they were encountering, from development pressures, eutrophication of the lake, pesticide use, problems to the communities, the residents, and the lake … always the lake. The details were there, but there was something more, something that resonated strongly within me.
The details faded from my conscience, and all the while I was drawn to Peter's passion, his connection and attachment to the lake, and how it was intensifying as he spoke, how the struggles that he was engaged in were effecting every aspect of his life. His compassion and commitment were sincere and spiritual – and he was not about to let go. Preston Lake and what it signified to him were to be passed on to his daughter.
His line was drawn in the sand, as is mine. He talked about the fish in the lake, this small body of water, perhaps 35 acres in all on the height of the Moraine, only about 25 kilometres from Toronto. He talked about the huge large mouth bass of over 10 pounds that was caught in the lake over 20 years ago. It is now mounted in his "fish-house" at the lake and remains to this day the record for large mouth bass in Ontario.
The uneasy parallel of our struggles shook me to the core and the connection began to evolve in my mind. In order to get some perspective of the amount of damage that mercury could inflict, I had been toying with a line from a newspaper article that I had come across in researching mercury.
"It takes only 1/70th of a teaspoon, or one gram, of mercury to contaminate a 25 acre lake to the point where the fish are unsafe to eat."
Here was this aged fish, oversized for its species, and caught on a small lake in the vicinity of my home. In all my research and writings on mercury, I have been searching for a way to bring this issue to a scale that people could relate to, and here it was, so close to home.
Peter and Sandy invited us to their home after our meeting to see the mounted fish and the lake. I felt compelled to go that very same day. I headed out to Preston Lake where I found Peter waiting, as I knew that he would.
I took my own time and stood alone at the shore, breathing in the lake through my eyes, mouth, hands, and every conscious part of me. I took a mental photo image of the lake.
Looking upward, I traced the path of the 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury from its origin, the coal plants on the shore of Lake Ontario to the depths of Preston Lake. The mercury fell with the rain, some settling onto the branches of the trees and the leaves, most splashing playfully onto the surface of the placid lake.
But the enticing game suddenly ceased as the mercury penetrated the surface, gravitating to the bottom, all the while being magically transformed by microbial action into its most dangerous form, methylmercury. The little fish and insects that feed on the microbial life would now fill their gills with methylmercury. In turn, the larger fish, the predators, would feed on the little fish and become infused with methylmercury in their tissue, for the larger the fish, the higher the concentration of methylmercury.
That is the strength and potency of this trickster compound, methylmercury, its "natural and particular" property to bioaccumulate by millions through the food chain. Those fish were now contaminated, poisoned with mercury. Whoever eats the fish here in Preston Lake or in any other body of water contaminated with mercury, be it humans, loons, otters, belugas and seals, will ingest methylmercury which in turn will penetrate through to the very essence of life – the fetuses, the offspring, the females of all species. And methylmercury, ever persistent as it is, does not let go.
From the trance-like state on the shore, I joined up with Peter and went into the fish house to see the "trophy" fish. As I was about to leave, he gave me a poster of a young Cree woman standing on a rock. At the base was written the Cree prophecy
Only after the last tree has
been cut down,
Only after the last river
has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish
has been caught,
Only then will you find that
money cannot be eaten.
In the evening, in the still of the night and alone in the house that I call home, another story was unfolding. It was my family, a lake that we cherish, and this was to become the very special and personal story that had been stirring within me all the while I was visiting Peter and Preston Lake.
The story would keep working its way through me during the night and I would ingest it as the fish were ingesting methylmercury. It was to become an opening and another beginning that would let me release so much emotion within me … And I wept uncontrollably for a long time.
It was a beautiful early evening on the lake, Percy Lake, calm and inviting, and fishing time, and a scene that was so typical of that period in my life. The boat was loaded with all the gear and drinks. My 8-year-old daughter Elinor was slicing worms, and then casting, with the relish, freedom and joy of a child in her element. Her dad, her closest fishing buddy, guided the boat as it made its way to the mouth of the river, fishing and trawling all the while. I was there for the ride, a book in hand, glancing from time to time at the lake, knowing that the peaceful moment would not last.
Then, excitement! Elinor feels a strong tug at her line, the rod arches over with the weight of a fish – the dog is jumping up and down, lines are getting tangled, chaos – she's reeling it in, she's got it – the largest small mouth bass she has ever caught! She asks me if we could eat it for supper.
What could surpass eating a fresh catch from one so innocent and young? From one's child? She was not a believer in catch for catch sake. It seemed so cruel to her. We would beach the boat by the rock, make a fire, Elinor would gut and clean the fish and maybe I would cook it over the open fire … It would be just great!
We look at each other, her dad and I, without a word, aware that not all the fish may be safe to eat. (Is the boat? Likely not.) After all, it is children and pregnant women who are particularly sensitive to mercury-contaminated fish. Is this fish safe to eat? The fish is still alive and we need to decide fast. What do we do?
I have to take the responsibility – I have to be the one to tell her.
"Elinor, we're not sure if this fish is safe, fish can be full of a lot of poisons, with something called mercury. It's too bad but you can't simply eat everything you catch any more. We have to check to be sure, particularly for you and me. We can't take a chance."
Elinor was intent – frowning, pouting, disappointed and angry at the same time. No fire, no fun, no guts. But she wasn't quite ready to give up. "Where does this … mercury come from anyway, how does it get into Percy Lake, and into the fish?"
How do you begin to answer a child who must know, who bears the consequence of the acts of others? She deserves an explanation, that is the very least we can do.
Reluctantly, we throw the fish, still alive, jumping in the boat, back into the lake.
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Mercury in Fish: Impacts on Wildlife The mercury absorbed by fish from food and water can cause a host of problems, from impaired sperm generation in guppies to high mortality among rainbow trout embryos. The accumulation of mercury in fish populations has far-reaching effect on other species. Predatory mammals (panthers), marine mammals (whales and seals), and predatory birds (hawks and eagles) are most at risk. Mercury damages their livers, kidneys, most particularly, the central nervous system of these animals with the most devastating effects in embryos and the young. Mercury is the likely cause of reproductive failure among loons, eagles, mink, turtles, river otters, and other wildlife. Scientists now believe that methylmercury is a factor in the increasing deformities among species such as bullfrogs and northern leopard frogs, which spend most of their lives in water. |
Now, several years later, shifting from past to present as I so often do, fearing the future, thinking about Elinor and her dad, her closest fishing buddy, gone forever, only memories and stories are now left, and so much pain.
As I picture my daughter at 8 years old, I recall my own youth. What did we know about toxic substances? After all, for us, as immigrants from Eastern Europe, Canada was a land so pure, so vast, you could drink the water from the lakes, swim in the rivers, and eat the fish.
In another dream-like state, I recall another earlier scene a number of years ago, on our way to Manitoulin Island. We were at a campsite in Johnny Lake, near Killarney Provincial Park. Such a pretty lake, what a discovery, must be great for fishing.
So once more, we launch the boat, toss in the fishing gear. We're bound to catch something here. The lake was narrow, quiet and almost ghostly, along the shoreline rimmed with steep granite rocks. After several hours had gone by, still no fish had been caught – nor were there any nibbles on the lines. As we headed back to the campsite, the people standing at the dock looked at us with all the fishing gear somewhat bemused, laughing in a mocking way – city slickers, not knowing very much about this lake. "No luck," we say, somewhat surprised. "Of course not," was the chorus from the dock. "Johnny Lake's been dead for years now. Acid Rain. That's what has happened to all the lakes around here. It's coming from the stacks in Sudbury. The fishing is over. Look at the trees, the tops of the maples – not like they used to be."
Today, as I picture Johnny Lake, its stillness and beauty, I laugh at my ignorance, and feel a little ashamed. Despite the movement to bring Acid Rain to the forefront, to the point where governments were forced to act, here we are today, still mired with the effects of acid rain.
Strange beings we are that with all that we know and all that has been ruined over the years, there are those who find it okay to fish in Johnny Lake and catch nothing.
What you can do
- Dental fillings are 50% mercury. The mercury must be collected; people should ask for alternatives
- Pressure the government to mandate renewable energy; coal must be phased out as an energy source
- Fight garbage incineration
- Get your city to collect fluorescent light bulbs; they release mercury
- Support the Canadian Auto Workers' effort to get mercury out of automobile switches
- Insist on fish advisories so you know what to avoid
- Limit children's consumption of tuna