[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 116 (Thursday, July 19, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S9615]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. OBAMA:
  S. 1818. A bill to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act to phase 
out the use of mercury in the manufacture of chlorine and caustic soda, 
and for other purposes; to the Committee on Environment and Public 
Works.
  Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, today I reintroduce legislation initially 
inspired by an indepth report published in late 2005 by the Chicago 
Tribune that highlighted the extent of mercury contamination in the 
fish eaten by the American people.
  Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can cause serious developmental 
problems in children, ranging from severe birth defects to mental 
retardation. As many as 630,000 children born annually in the U.S. are 
at risk of neurological afflictions related to mercury. In adults, 
mercury can cause problems affecting vision, motor skills, blood 
pressure and fertility. As many as 10 percent of women in the U.S. of 
childbearing age have mercury in their blood at a level that could put 
a baby at risk.
  Sampling conducted by the Tribune showed surprisingly high levels of 
mercury concentrations in freshwater and saltwater fish purchased by 
Chicago area consumers, fish like tuna, swordfish, orange roughy, and 
walleye. The Tribune also reported on how existing programs at the Food 
and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have 
failed to adequately test and evaluate mercury levels in fish.
  For all Americans, especially pregnant women and other at-risk 
groups, there are risks to eating fish with high mercury levels. That 
is why we need to work harder to get at the root causes of mercury 
contamination. In the short term, some have proposed strategies that 
include eating less fish, or issuing consumption advisories, or 
printing labels on tuna cans, or posting placards at the supermarket. 
Each of those strategies have their respective merits, but if we are 
really serious about making fish safer to eat, we need to actually 
reduce the amount of mercury in fish, and that means reducing the 
amount of mercury used in industry.
  When policymakers focus on addressing mercury sources, often coal-
fired power plants and incinerators are at the top of the list. I think 
it is important that we not overlook other sources, however, where new 
policies could yield notable mercury reductions in the short term using 
methods that are achievable and affordable. One such source is the 
chlor-alkali industry.
  Chlor-alkali facilities manufacture chlorine gas and caustic soda, 
important chemicals that serve as the building blocks of many of the 
products and plastics essential to modem everyday life. For more than 
100 years, mercury has been a key component in the chlorine process. 
Since 1974, however, about 115 plants worldwide have converted to 
better technologies such as membrane and diaphragm cells. Today in the 
U.S. more than 90 percent of the chlor-alkali industry has switched 
from using mercury to using these alternative catalysts. Moreover, of 
the 8 plants in the U.S. that still use mercury, 3 are in the process 
of stopping. The remaining 5, however, have made no such commitment. It 
is also worth noting that in 2005 alone, the 5 uncommitted mercury 
using plants released more than 4,400 pounds of mercury into the air, 
on average four times the average mercury releases of a standard coal-
fired power plant.
  The time has come to finish these upgrades and end the use of mercury 
in the chlor-alkali process, especially since these remaining plants 
rank among the largest mercury emitters in their respective states.
  The bill I introduce today, the Missing Mercury in Manufacturing 
Monitoring and Mitigation Act, or M5 Act, prohibits using mercury cells 
in the chlorine or caustic soda manufacturing process by the year 2012. 
The M5 Act also puts procedures in place by mid-year 2008 to track and 
report mercury input and output in the chlor-alkali industry. The 
evidence suggests that between 2000 and 2004, the industry could not 
account for more than 130 tons of mercury. The EPA calls this ``an 
enigma.'' The M5 Act addresses this enigma by tightening up mercury 
tracking requirements. My bill also establishes an advisory committee 
to study and recommend methods for transfer and long-term storage of 
mercury from closed or closing facilities. And the bill directs the 
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Register to conduct a health 
assessment at those facilities that still use mercury after 2008.
  It is important to point out that there are alternatives to mercury 
in the chlor-alkali process, more than 100 plants worldwide have 
converted to better technologies. We also know that these alternatives 
are not cost-prohibitive. Statistics compiled in a recent report by the 
group Oceana demonstrate that conversion costs are substantially 
similar to the cost of the continued use of mercury, for example, the 
cost of waste disposal, treatment, monitoring, fines, and higher energy 
consumption associated with using the old technology.
  If there were simply no alternatives to mercury for this industry, if 
other technologies had not been proven on a commercial scale, or if 
switching from mercury was simply too expensive, then I could 
understand if there were strong arguments against this legislation. But 
here we actually have a situation where mercury use could actually be 
phased out within a rather short period of time, improving the health 
of children and families. So the choice is whether we want to wait 
another decade and hope that improvements happen, or whether we want to 
ensure that mercury is phased out beginning today. I hope my colleagues 
will choose the latter, and I urge their support of this bill.
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