Mercury Policy Project
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The Mercury Policy Project (MPP) is an organization that works to promote policies to eliminate mercury uses, reduce the export and trafficking of mercury, and significantly reduce mercury exposures at the local, national, and international levels.
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[edit] History
The Project was founded in 1998 by Michael Bender with financial assistance from the Tides Center, a non-profit group that provides financial assistance to activist groups. Bender is the organization's sole full time employee, and part of a three-member board along with Felice Stadler of the National Wildlife Federation and Jane Williams of California Communities Against Toxics.[1] During a 2002 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hearing, Bender admitted that he didn't have a science background, but has worked with mercury advocacy groups in New England, Washington, D.C., and internationally with the European Union.[2]
In 2003 and 2005 MPP released studies raising public alarm over the levels of mercury in seafood that served as the basis for numerous stories in the media. Its September 2005 report, co-authored by Oceana, claimed that tuna and swordfish sold at grocery chains in 22 states contained hazardous levels of mercury. The highest concentration of mercury found in a single sample registered at 2.33 parts-per-million, still more than four times lower than what the FDA describes as "the lowest levels associated with adverse effects."
[edit] See also
- Got Mercury?, a United States public awareness campaign about levels of the element mercury in seafood
- Mercury poisoning, a disease caused by exposure to the element mercury or its toxic compounds
- Mercury vacuum, a vacuum cleaner specifically designed to collect spills and vapors of the element mercury
- Mercury-containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act, a 1996 United States law to phase out the use of mercury in batteries
- Minamata disease, industrial mercury pollution
- Niigata Minamata disease, industrial mercury pollution
