Patrick Leahy: “today I am introducing the ``Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 1998.'' As United States Senators, we all have a…”

“today I am introducing the ``Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 1998.'' As United States Senators, we all have a responsibility to build a nation for our children. As a recent grandfather, this commitment has never been more real for me. I am introducing this comprehensive piece of legislation to eliminate mercury--one of the last remaining poisons without a specific control strategy--from our air, our waters and our forests. By eliminating mercury from our natural resources, we will protect our nation's most important resource--our children and grandchildren. As we learned from the campaign to eliminate lead, our children are at the greatest risk from these poisons. I often ask myself how many Albert Einsteins have we lost in the last generation because of the toxics they have been exposed to? Just as with lead, we know that mercury has much graver effects on children at very low levels then it does on adults. The level of lead pollution we and our children breathe today is one-tenth what it was a decade ago. That figure by itself is a tribute to the success of the original Clean Air Act. I want to achieve the same results with mercury. Mercury is toxic in every known form and of utterly no nutritional value. At high enough levels it poisons its victims in terribly tragic ways.”