Mercury hurts kids, and it comes from mining

C.A. Arneson, a retired teacher, lives on a lake near Ely.

A 2011 Minnesota Department of Heath (MDH) study indicated that 10 percent of Minnesota newborns in the Lake Superior Basin have toxic levels of mercury in their blood, likely from pregnant mothers eating fish. So the advice is: Don't eat fish.

The mining industry in Minnesota loves to say that a greater percentage of the mercury deposited in our waters comes from outstate sources than from the taconite mines. So what? It is the sulfates that are responsible for triggering the production of methylmercury, the toxic form that bio-accumulates in the fish we eat and then in us — and in our babies. Why not hold taconite mining and other industries accountable for the sulfates they disgorge into our waters?

The mining industry is the major source of sulfate pollution in northern Minnesota. Is it not likely that sulfate pollution is the link to the high mercury levels in our newborns?

Why is no one in power asking?

Minnesota needs MDH research, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency writing and enforcement of permits (without giving variances), and a cleanup of the taconite mines before we even suggest bringing sulfide mining's load of sulfates to the Arrowhead. We have a right to eat fish from our lakes without our babies being contaminated. Put the blame where it belongs, on the industry that does the polluting. Are our children not more precious than metals?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency:

"For fetuses, infants, and children, the primary health effect of methylmercury is impaired neurological development. Methylmercury exposure in the womb, which can result from a mother's consumption of fish and shellfish that contain methylmercury, can adversely affect a baby's growing brain and nervous system. Impacts on cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills have been seen in children exposed to methylmercury in the womb. ... Outbreaks of methylmercury poisonings have made it clear that adults, children, and developing fetuses are at risk from ingestion exposure to methylmercury. During these poisoning outbreaks some mothers with no symptoms of nervous system damage gave birth to infants with severe disabilities, it became clear that the developing nervous system of the fetus may be more vulnerable to methylmercury than is the adult nervous system."

Unfortunately, it seems that the health of our children and their quality of life have been forgotten in the speculative rush for so-called precious metals exploration. It has even infiltrated the public education system in Minnesota, with the current frenzy to trade school trust lands inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for other lands in the Superior National Forest. Why promote an exchange instead of a buyout of the trust lands? Superior National Forest land would then become available for proposed sulfide mining. It could be exploited, instead of sustainably managed. Or, as state Rep. David Dill said, "mine, log, and lease the hell" out of it.

We need to fund education properly. Then we should teach children how to sustainably manage trust lands through stewardship, instead of using children as corporative chess pieces in a political game.

Will Minnesota's leaders care about our children? Will our legislators enact "prove-it -first" legislation to protect our children's health and their legacy of water? Or will our children's health essentially be sold to the highest bidder?