Mercury madness.

Byline: The Register-Guard

By the Environmental Protection Agency's own estimates, 15 percent of the 4 million babies born each year in the United States may be exposed to levels of mercury in the womb that can cause neurological damage and learning problems.

Yet the EPA is bulldozing ahead with plans to finalize mercury pollution rules that favor industry and already have been discredited by the agency's own inspector general. The EPA should do a U-turn and enact tough mercury emissions rules that place the well-being of pregnant women and children over the interests of power companies.

Last month, the EPA's inspector general reported that agency administrators had ordered staff members to overlook scientific evidence and agency protocols to ensure that proposed mercury pollution limits were acceptable to the Bush administration and to affected industries.

Now, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office says the EPA did, in fact, distort the analysis of its proposed limits, making it appear the administration's pro-industry approach was superior to an alternative favored by public health advocates.

The GAO report says the EPA neglected to document the toxic effects of mercury on the health of children and women of childbearing age in its analysis of two approaches to limiting mercury emissions. The GAO urged that this critical omission be corrected before the EPA takes final action on the new rule.

That seems unlikely, given the Bush administration's Spockish mind-meld with industry interests - and its resulting indifference to the health of pregnant women and young children.

In early 2004, the EPA offered two options for reducing the 48 tons of mercury emitted annually by U.S. power plants. Both industry and the administration from the outset heavily favored the cap-and-trade approach, which allows electric utilities to trade in mercury pollution credits. Environmentalists generally favored an alternative that would impose strict mercury pollution limits at every plant.

Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of 29 senators urged newly appointed EPA Administrator Steve Johnson to reverse course on the mercury rule in light of the inspector general's and the GAO's reports.

Johnson should heed the request and call an exorcist to rid his agency of political demons. If the new EPA chief, a career agency scientist, caves to White House pressure and puts the trading system into place, he will damage his agency's credibility and his own. He also will have put in place a rule that's unlikely to survive court challenges and that, most importantly, increases the risk of health complications for millions of women and children.

If Johnson is concerned about industry complaints about the cost of alternative approaches, he should take the time to read a new study on the economic impacts of mercury pollution. The study, by researchers from the Mount Sinai Center for Children's Health and the Environment, estimates that up to 637,233 children are born each year with mercury levels associated with IQ loss. The study estimates the resulting loss in earnings potential at $9 billion a year.

Johnson should reject the cap-and-trade plan and put strong mercury limits in place - limits that place the needs of children and women over those of industry.