REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON MATERNAL AND PERINATAL HEALTH
CM-MPH Report 2-A-06
Subject: Partnership with Alliance for a Clean Texas
Presented by: Janet Realini, MD, MPH, Chair
Referred to: Reference Committee on Public Health
In recognition that mercury is a known neurotoxin and that Texas leads the nation in mercury emissions, the Committee on Maternal and Perinatal Health is extremely concerned about the health effects of air pollution on the fetus, infants, young children, and adults. The committee believes that TMA should take a public stand in favor of power plant clean-up in Texas.
More than 10 percent of the nation's mercury comes from Texas coal plants, and along with mercury come toxic arsenic, dioxin, lead, and cadmium. Mercury in the air enters waterways and contaminates fish and wildlife. Exposure, typically through eating contaminated fish, leads to an array of conditions from attention deficit to permanent brain damage. Mercury contamination has made some fish unsafe to eat in 12 Texas bodies of water, including major fishing lakes and the entire Gulf Coast, affecting 38 Texas counties.
Specific mercury controls to reduce pollution and health impacts have been tested; they work and are affordable (43 cents to $1.29 per month for an average Texas household, according to the National Wildlife Federation).
One way TMA can publicly support clean air initiatives is by becoming a partner in the Alliance for a Clean Texas (ACT). ACT is an alliance of more than 25 environmental, public interest, consumer rights, and religious organizations dedicated to improving public health, quality of life, and the environment in Texas by working for change at the regulatory and legislative levels.
ACT supports a reduction in mercury emissions at all Texas coal-burning power plants to 10 percent of 2002 levels and believes that Texas should opt out of national "trading" of toxic pollutants. This position is consistent with TMA's position as expressed in an April 2004 letter from TMA to EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt as well as in TMA policy 280.031 regarding mercury pollution, which adopts a consensus statement of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, the American Public Health Association, and the Children's Environmental Health Network.
Membership in the alliance does not imply blanket endorsement of the full ACT agenda, but does allow ACT to use TMA's name publicly, with permission, in specific areas that TMA supports. Current ACT partners include American Lung Association of Texas and Austin Physicians for Social Responsibility. Membership dues are $100 per year.
Recommendation : That the Texas Medical Association support the efforts of the Alliance for a Clean Texas concerning the reduction of mercury emissions .