A new report has found that nine chlorine factories are among the nation's largest sources of mercury, a potent neurotoxin that spreads globally and has rendered some seafood unsafe to eat.
To be released today, the report, written by the environmental group Oceana, documents what it calls a "long-overlooked" source of mercury polluting the air. The findings are based on a review of toxic inventories filed by the chemical companies.
The chlorine industry and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acknowledge that the chemical plants have been a sizable source of mercury pollution. But they say the companies have substantially reduced their emissions in recent years.
Most U.S. efforts to control mercury have focused on coal-fired power plants, which are facing controversial and costly new efforts to regulate their emissions. But the report concludes that nine chlorine plants, mostly in the Southeast and Midwest, could be releasing as much, or more, mercury than the power companies are.
"The nine mercury-based chlorine plants in the U.S. may rival the entire power industry as the nation's largest industrial mercury polluter," says the report by Oceana, which is launching a campaign to reduce the levels of mercury and educate the public about its dangers.
Mercury is considered one of the most hazardous and ubiquitous contaminants. Emissions from factories and power plants travel thousands of miles in the air and drop into oceans and lakes, building up in the tissues of animals and people.
The mercury-cell chlorine factories each reported emitting an average of 1,097 pounds of mercury into the air in 2002, five times more than the average power plant, according to Oceana's analysis of reports that companies filed annually with the EPA. Eight of the nine plants rank among the top 25 U.S. companies in reported mercury emissions, the report says.
But their actual emissions could be much higher. How much mercury they release into the environment is largely unknown, because many tons are "missing" at the chlorine plants every year -- unaccounted for in the companies' annual inventories, according to a 2004 industry report.
Chlorine is used for manufacturing vinyl, disinfecting drinking water, producing medicines and making cleaning solvents, among other uses. Most chlorine is produced using new, mercury-free technologies, but nine factories use a process that pumps a saltwater solution through a vat of mercury to set off a chemical reaction.
