Mercury Prevention
Mercury prevention and elimination is of utmost importance for our health for the future. With the production of coal causing 50% of the emissions in the US, what we need is for an agency to step in and take charge to ensure that we are able to breathe clean air...or wait, we have the EPA for that. With the rise of mercury levels from the production of coal and other mining facilities, what we need is the development of methods that would either reduce the amount of mercury emissions drastically or better yet, eliminate them completely. However, even if we do this, the businesses that produce these emissions have to be on board and if not willing, forced to implement these changes. Reducing emissions is not a low cost affair, at least for the companies that are causing these emissions and as such, they will fight it most of they way. Thankfully there is some help in the government for this with the passing of the Clean Air Act in 1963 that gave the EPA the power to regulate what was being emitted out of these production companies. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it seems the big businesses got in the way of that and we have not been able to make a large dent in what was being emitted for the majority of the CAA enactment. However, in 2011, the EPA gave companies four years to finally reduce the emissions, with 3 years for sources of toxins to comply with an additional year if states allow for any new technology installation. As we are now in 2015, I am hoping that we will start seeing a reduction in mercury emissions in the US. As with all government agencies and ruling, I do not expect to see a 100% completion from all sources of mercury, but that is just my pessimistic side coming out. And the end all question is whether we are doing this soon enough or are we to late?
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