Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette Alfred Rowe, 75, of Jefferson Hills, fishes at Point State Park, Downtown. Public health officials are concerned that power plant emissions cause hot spots and lead to increased contamination in fish, which leads to high levels of mercury in those who consume fish. Click photo for larger image.

Noting that "babies are at the greatest risk," a group of 44 medical, public health and environmental officials statewide is pushing the state Legislature to adopt stricter standards for mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The state has until November to adopt tougher regulations proposed by the Department of Environmental Protection.

If the standards are not adopted, the state would be required to use U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations permitting a slower rate of compliance and allowing power plants to buy credits from more compliant companies rather than reduce their own levels of mercury emissions.

Bills have been introduced in the state House and Senate to require the state to adopt less stringent EPA standards, prompting the 44 medical and public health officials to hold a statewide teleconference yesterday to call for passage of the stricter state regs.

They said people backing the federal standards have not read volumes of health studies on mercury's health effects or have chosen to ignore the evidence.

They likened opposition to stricter standards to the tobacco industry's rejection of evidence that cigarettes cause cancer, and paint and gasoline companies discounting data that lead in paint and gasoline impairs childhood development.

"We need to get rid of mercury as much as possible and as soon as possible," said Dr. James E. Jones of Physicians for Social Responsibility, noting that "prevention is the way to approach this."

"There is no safe level," he said. "The principle has to be, the less mercury the better."

The state Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a third hearing yesterday in Harrisburg on a bill its chairwoman -- state Sen. Mary Jo White, R-Venango County -- introduced to force adoption of less restrictive EPA standards.

She said it was necessary because stricter state regs would force power plants to add technology to reduce mercury emissions and cause energy costs to rise for consumers.

Ms. White also said there's no definitive evidence mercury ingestion among state residents is causing negative health effects.

But officials attending yesterday's teleconference said certain senators are ignoring evidence that counters their viewpoint.

"How many times do we have to go through this argument?" said Dr. Conrad Daniel Volz, co-director of Exposure Assessment and Control Division of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute's Center for Environmental Oncology.

The group that included 19 medical doctors said low to moderate exposure to mercury before birth can cause developmental problems -- delayed walking and speech and diminished performance in tests of attention, fine motor function, language, visual-spatial abilities and memory.

The group said 630,000 newborns each year are at risk of serious neurological and developmental impairment due to mercury exposure.

A Penn State University study, which the DEP released last week, said mercury emissions cause hot spots in communities near power plants. The university said water samples collected for eight years showed a 47 percent increase in mercury levels downwind from power plants, as compared with a Tioga County community with little direct exposure to mercury emissions.

But a state coalition of organizations representing power companies, unions, chambers of commerce and manufacturers said DEP's data showed no direct link between power plant emissions and mercury hot spots. They said DEP's conclusions are "simply not true."

Dr. Volz, as well as others attending yesterday's news conference, said the evidence is clear: Mercury emissions cause hot spots and lead to increased mercury contamination in fish, which in turn causes higher levels in humans who consume those fish.

He said minorities and more impoverished people fish the local rivers and eat walleye, catfish and other species they catch, despite alerts against consumption of local fish.

"People in Pittsburgh eat appreciably more fish [from local rivers] than once thought," he said.