Amid rising concerns about mercury pollution, health officials plan to put up warning signs at boat landings across the state. They also are considering a first-ever program to test people's mercury levels.
Calling mercury contamination a "major public health issue," Edwin Cooper, a Charleston lawyer and member of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control's board of commissioners, suggested posting placards at boat landings during an agency meeting last month.
Cooper said Thursday that the warning sign issue "had been on my personal radar for a number of years," but that he also was spurred by The Post and Courier's recent series, "The Mercury Connection."
The series identified mercury hot spots in the Edisto River/Four Holes Swamp area and along the Little Pee Dee and Lynches rivers, and showed how some people who eat fish from these waterways have unusually high levels of mercury in their bodies. So far, DHEC has issued advisories warning people not to eat certain species of fish in more than 1,700 miles of South Carolina rivers, mostly in the coastal plain.
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http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/jan/05/s_c_boat_landings_get_signs_warning_abou26734/Coal fired power plants - Too Cheap To Meter!!!