Coal burning power plants continued to emit mercury into the atmosphere last year.

While the power plants are not the only source of mercury pollution, fishermen in Illinois and around the country are facing the consequences.

As mercury is emitted into the atmosphere it eventually makes its way into the water supply, said Donna Twickler, spokeswoman for the region five Environmental Protection Agency office. The mercury comes from burnt coal as well as gravity assisted automobile switches.

Once it’s in the water supply, mercury is chemically changed into methyl mercury by a microorganism found in the sediment of water bodies and made available for bio uptake by fish and shellfish, Twickler said. The methyl mercury continues through the food chain, which ends with humans.

Methyl mercury, the organic form of the liquid metal, has the most serious health implications for people, chemistry professor David Ballantine said. The organic methyl mercury bio-accumulates in fat tissues of fish and humans. Mercury contamination poses a more severe risk for children and unborn babies.

In Illinois the Department of Natural Resources has issued statewide fish consumption advisories because of methyl mercury buildup in game-fish species.

All water bodies in the state are subject to the advisory, which states, “The advisory has been established to protect the most sensitive populations, including pregnant or nursing women of child-bearing age, and children less than 15 years of age.”

These populations are especially sensitive to adverse health risks due to the developing nervous system.

Individual advisories have been issued for a number of water bodies in Illinois, including Lake Michigan and Sycamore Lake. In Sycamore Lake consumption of all catfish and carp larger than 23 inches should be limited to one meal a week in the populations outlined by the statewide advisory.

Hugh Davis, chief of the waste treatment branch in the EPA’s office of solid waste, outlined some of the federal regulations, or lack thereof, associated with mercury-containing switches on vehicles.

“The waste itself is not regulated as a hazardous waste,” Davis said of the switches. Mercury switches are not specifically addressed in the regulations and the EPA does not regulate products as a general practice, he said.

The way to regulate mercury-containing switches federally involves an indirect method, Davis said. This is done by regulating the steel mills that melt the scrap vehicles, mercury switches and all, through the provisions of the Clean Air Act.

Twickler confirmed Davis’s assertion about the lack of federal regulations.

“Some states have regulations,” Twickler said. “(There are) no federal regulations regarding the switch issue.”

Federally unregulated mercury-containing switches have been the focus of a number of state’s regulations, including Illinois.

Federal regulations are non-existent so Illinois, Maine and several other states have adopted their own laws concerning mercury-containing switches.

“Illinois has been fairly active on the mercury issue,” Davis said.

On May 25, 2004 the Mercury Reduction Act passed in both houses of the Illinois General Assembly. The bill did not become law until about four months later when Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed it.

The act states “no person shall sell, offer to sell, distribute, or offer to distribute a mercury switch” in the state of Illinois.

The Mercury Reduction Act, while addressing the sale and distribution of mercury-containing switches, does not regulate the disposal of the switches but does mandate a legislative report from the Illinois EPA.

With the report recommendations still to be implemented the EPA estimates 215 million switches are on the road, awaiting their eventual demise.

“People who are going to the trouble of removing these switches are trying to find where to send them,” Davis said. “It’s not a widespread practice.”

When mercury-containing switches are removed the person who scraps the car must find a mercury recycler, he said.