Take Action: Keep Mercury Out Of Our Babies' Brains

Moms Clean Air Force fought hard for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), finally implemented in 2012. They give us a lifesaving, effective pollution prevention program that specifically protects pregnant women and babies from harm from the brain-damaging heavy metal mercury—along with other terrible poisons. The mercury standards have helped to dramatically lower mercury emissions from coal plants—which were the largest source of mercury pollution in the US.

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards are now fully implemented and are successfully reducing American families’ exposure to mercury and other poisonous substances. These standards help ensure 90% of the mercury from coal burned in power plants does not get released into our air.

EPA estimates that the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards save up to 11,000 lives each year, prevent thousands of heart attacks each year, prevent thousands of asthma attacks each year, and prevent thousands of hospital and emergency room visits each year.

The economic benefits of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards are as high as $90 billion each year, outweighing the costs of fixing the problem by up to a margin of 9 to 1. Furthermore, utilities found it was far less expensive than they predicted to install made-in-America “scrubber” technology to keep the mercury out of air. The most polluting coal plants, too old and dilapidated to invest in, were shut down—and this is a win against climate change pollution too.

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards were weakened by the Trump administration.

President Trump and his EPA worked to undermine, weaken, and ultimately unravel these lifesaving standards. In 2020, EPA finalized a change to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that changed the legal justification for the rule, putting the standards at risk.

President Biden announced his commitment to fixing the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards on Day One of his administration. Moms Clean Air Force applauds Biden’s recognition of the importance of protecting children’s health from mercury and other harmful air toxics, and we will continue to elevate this issue to ensure it remains a top priority.

Moms have a long history of fighting to keep mercury out of our babies’ brains.

Moms Clean Air Force fought to get the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards established and implemented—and we are fighting now to fix the dangerous weakening of the standards, finalized in 2020. We helped thousands of moms submit comments to the public docket on the dangerous proposal undermining the MATS; we brought dozens of moms to DC to testify in person at the one public hearing on the MATS proposal in March, 2019; we convened experts to discuss the impacts of the proposal with the media; we hosted a congressional briefing about the rollback with Senator Tom Carper (DE); we testified before congress about the importance of keeping our mercury standards strong; and we have conducted dozens of meetings with lawmakers to educate them on the health and economic impacts of weakening the mercury standards in their states, as well as the benefits that their states have gained from the MATS.

Tell President Biden that you appreciate his commitment to fixing the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and that moms want this issue to remain a top priority.