PORTLAND – A new environmental group that focuses on public health issues will seek legislation targeting mercury and arsenic contamination in Maine.

The Environmental Health Strategy Center is already working with legislators on new proposals to phase out more products that contain mercury and cut the public’s exposure to arsenic from drinking water and pressure-treated lumber.

The group is staffed by three longtime Maine environmental activists who have come together to focus more of their energy on the link between human health and the environment.

“We’re seeking systematic changes in government policy and in business decisions on what kinds of products to sell in an effort to promote safer alternatives to a whole slew of toxic chemicals that people are exposed to on a daily basis,” said Michael Belliveau, executive director of the new group.

Belliveau is the former director of the toxics and clean production project for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, one of the state’s largest environmental groups.

Other staff members include Amanda Sears, a former outreach coordinator for the Natural Resources Council, and Ronald Kreisman, an environmental lawyer who was active in the HoltraChem mercury and Edwards Dam issues.

Last year, the Legislature required auto manufacturers to pay for the removal of mercury switches from old cars before they are scrapped. Another new law phases out the sale of thermostats that contain mercury by 2006.

Belliveau’s group will be working with the Learning Disabilities Association of Maine to support a more sweeping proposal this year. The legislation would phase out the use of mercury-containing products such as blood-pressure monitors and mercury switches that are found in appliances and pumps.

Belliveau says another big issue this year will be arsenic, a cancer-causing substance associated with skin cancer and bladder cancer. In Maine, he says, the major sources of arsenic exposure are drinking water from private wells and wood that has been treated with a chemical preservative containing arsenic.

“A large number of Maine residents are exposing themselves to dangerous levels of arsenic above the health standard, and they don’t know about it,” Belliveau said.

The Environmental Health Strategy Center received its startup funding from the John Merck Fund, a Boston-based fund that focuses on issues of environmental health.