Tell Congress: Our Babies Need Protection
from Mercury and Air Toxics
The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards are under attack.
Members of Moms Clean Air Force fought hard for The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, 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.
Were they working before?
Yes! The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards are now fully implemented and are successfully reducing American families’ exposure to mercury and other poisonous substances. The Mercury and Air Toxics 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 are under attack by the Trump administration and an EPA no longer working to protect people’s health.
President Trump and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler are actively fighting to undermine, weaken, and ultimately unravel these lifesaving standards. This puts our health at risk. The Trump and Wheeler anti-regulation agenda is toxic for people.
Moms have had enough. EPA Administrator Wheeler must go.
Moms Clean Air Force fought to get the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) established and implemented — and we are fighting now to protect them from being undermined by the Trump Administration. We have 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 Congress: Our Babies Need Protection
from Mercury and Air Toxics
Priority Reading:
Trump’s EPA Shuts Down Mercury
This Coal Lobbyist Should Not Run the E.P.A. (New York Times)
Experts Discuss How Trump’s EPA is Attacking Standards That Keep Our Families Safe from Mercury
The Health Benefits Of Reducing Mercury Are Much Larger Than Estimated
Mercury Pollution in the United States
Cómo actúa el envenenamiento por mercurio
Assault on Mercury and Air Toxics Standards
Resources about Mercury

Testimony: Heather McTeer Toney, Energy and Commerce Committee Hearing on Mercury Protections, May 2019

Testimony: Heather McTeer Toney, House Oversight Committee Hearing on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, February 2020

Andrew Wheeler’s EPA: A Racist Agenda

Rep. Kim Schrier | Stay-In for Climate Action!

Trump Administration Moves Under Cover of COVID

Mercury Pollution in the United States

How Mercury Poisoning Works

Assault on Mercury and Air Toxics Standards

Cómo actúa el envenenamiento por mercurio

Mercury Pollution in Michigan

Mercury Pollution in the Great Lakes Region

Mercury Pollution in Tennessee

Air Pollution is Invisible. Watch It Turn Visible.

U.S. Air Quality Monitors Routinely Miss Pollution

United We Stand

Get Expert Answers to Urgent Environmental Questions in 'Protecting Your Child’s Health'

Wheeler’s Voodoo Mercury Accounting

Healthy Pregnancy Guide

Tell EPA Black Communities Need Clean Air to Breathe

The Truth About Why COVID-19 Poses a Unique Threat to Black People

The Mother of All Injustices

More Americans Breathe Unhealthy Air. How Does Your State Stack Up?

EPA’s Attack on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards is Unforgivable

EPA Administrator Wheeler Must Go. Now.

Air Pollution is Invisible. Watch It Turn Visible.

U.S. Air Quality Monitors Routinely Miss Pollution

United We Stand

Testimony: Heather McTeer Toney, Energy and Commerce Committee Hearing on Mercury Protections, May 2019

Testimony: Heather McTeer Toney, House Oversight Committee Hearing on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, February 2020

Get Expert Answers to Urgent Environmental Questions in 'Protecting Your Child’s Health'

Andrew Wheeler’s EPA: A Racist Agenda

Rep. Kim Schrier | Stay-In for Climate Action!

Wheeler’s Voodoo Mercury Accounting

Healthy Pregnancy Guide

Tell EPA Black Communities Need Clean Air to Breathe
