The amount of mercury released by the cement plant -- the state's second-largest airborne source of mercury -- is "well below the mercury already present in air" from global sources such as distant factories on other continents, the letter said.A Ravena grassroots group, Community Advocates for Safe Emissions, brought the Harvard School of Public Health to
Chrome Ore Spiral Plant town for the May 2010 study, which found that one adult in 10 tested had blood mercury levels above state standards. The organization called the health department's response inadequate.
"DOH was obligated by law to inform people with elevated mercury levels," said CASE co-founder Elyse Kunz. "If the elevated level is not indicative of a health risk, what is the point of the safety standard
Gypsum Processing Plant Harvard was legally barred from releasing test results to individual subjects, and the state wrote letters only to those whose mercury blood levels exceeded the safety standard of 5 parts per billion.
Kunz also questioned how the state could advise these people that no further medical tests were necessary without knowing individual medical histories.And why did the state feel the need to specifically mention Lafarge and distance the plant from the source of the mercury, she said. "It's like they're saying, 'Wherever you got this mercury, it's not from this one industry.' Who is
Sandstone Quarry Plant the department working for Kunz also questioned why the state repeated long-standing advice that people should eat less fish to cut their risk of mercury exposure. The Harvard study found fish consumption accounted for only about 15 percent of elevated mercury cases in adults in Ravena, and most people were already eating very limited amounts of fish. "The DOH seems to be ignoring this she said.
