The Bush administration wants to allow power plants to spew more mercury into the air. Mercury lands downwind in the lakes and waters of Maine making our fish unsafe to eat. The Bush administration is threatening our fish, not to mention our children and us.

It is easy to dismiss the warnings about chemicals as constant crap and little harm actually happens. Actually, if harm did happen you wouldn’t know, because the effects of mercury are diffuse and wide ranging.

So, next time a neighbor’s kid is labeled as ADHD, learning disabled or autistic consider mercury. Next time a family member is diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue or anxiety disorder consider mercury.

Mercury has lots of effects and no one symptom you can point to. Mercury may not be the cause of these health problems in each case, but it has caused these health problems in some people.

We should be reducing the amount of mercury allowed in the air, not increasing it.

Jane McCloskey

Deer Isle