The South Carolina Wildlife Federation says a pared-down state health department study of the effects of mercury pollution and mercury-related illnesses due to consumption of fish from polluted waters is way too little in light of the growing evidence of the mercury problem.
State health officials said the study will be more modest than the statewide effort envisioned earlier because of budget limitations.
“Due to budget cuts, we won’t be able to do a full epidemiological study as previously discussed,” said Adam Myrick, a spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. “With a loss of somewhere around $40 million in state funding, that type of study simply isn’t feasible at this time.”
The Federation said this is no time to take a half-hearted approach to the mercury problem.
“This is one of the state’s most serious environmental and health issues,” state Federation Executive Director Ben Gregg said. “There is a growing body of evidence that South Carolina’s waters are seriously contaminated with mercury, and public officials don’t seem to be paying much attention.”
Gregg pointed out that a Unites States Geological Survey report published in September found mercury in every fish tested from the nation’s rivers between 1998 and 2005, with 27 percent exceeding federal standards. Largemouth bass from the North Edisto River in South Carolina had the second-highest concentration of mercury in the nation.
Mercury levels increase up the food chain into the fish in the form of methyl mercury, a potent neurotoxin. In extremely low levels, methyl mercury can cause birth defects, learning disabilities, blindness, paralysis, loss of muscular control and death.
Children of women who consume fish and seafood containing methyl mercury could be at special risk of brain and nerve damage resulting in neurological problems such as attention deficit disorder, language delay, learning difficulties and low IQ.
State officials have tested the levels of mercury in fish for years and occasionally issues warnings to not eat certain fish, but it has never systematically tested people to see if they are at risk from eating fish caught from the state’s rivers, streams and lakes.
Health officials said people in the Pee Dee region will be able go to DHEC health-department clinics in Lake City and Florence to have blood drawn and tested for mercury levels without charge. The hope is to eventually expand the tests to more locations around the state.
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