Two examples of Kennedy’s claims:
CLAIM: “It's now unsafe to eat any freshwater fish in Connecticut because of mercury contamination. The New York City reservoir system is so contaminated with mercury that no fish in them can be safely eaten. Most of the fish in New York state can no longer safely be eaten. All the fish in 17 states can no longer safely be eaten because of mercury contamination.”
CLAIM : “One out of every six American women of childbearing years now has so much mercury in her body that her children are at risk for permanent IQ loss, kidney and liver damage, blindness, and possibly autism because of the mercury.
FACT: The question is: are pregnant women and children being poisoned today? The answer is an emphatic “NO!” As with many things found in nature, mercury exposure can be lethal in sufficient quantities. At lower doses, there is no health effect. In short, the dose makes the poison. Because mercury is an element found in nature that can neither be created nor destroyed, it has been in fish in small quantities since before humans first discovered fire.
Of the two biggest studies ever conducted on the health impact of mercury on Island fish-eating populations – who consume far more fish than Americans – one found no ill effects and the measured a very slight effect at very high mercury levels in the blood stream – 58 parts per billion.
Not a single woman or child in the United States NHANES database has recorded that much mercury in their bloodstream. All of Kennedy’s claims stem from the number of women exceeding an extremely stringent “just in case” standard that is ten times lower than the 58 parts per billion where even a modest impact was observed in one study.
Jonathan Adler, an assistant professor of law at Case Western Reserve University, is right in his recent column when he writes, “It's a shame that in their efforts to stop environmental pollution, Kennedy and other activists have become so willing to pollute the truth.” These types of attacks by liberal special interest groups are coming all too common.
The Wall Street Journal further comments on this polluted truth saying, “The silver lining here may be that these environmentalist scares are becoming so routine and over-the-top that they are having less public impact. Americans are figuring out that green activists have abandoned any claim to scientific objectivity as they pursue political power.” Let’s hope they are right.