The EPA just loosened mercury rules for coal plants. Here’s what the toxic metal can do to your health

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has moved to repeal a Biden-era rule that limits the amount of toxic air pollution produced by coal-burning power plants.

The action could allow the plants to release more dangerous heavy metals, including brain-damaging mercury and cancer-causing arsenic, marking yet another step by the administration to reverse Biden policies.

It comes a week after the EPA announced it would repeal its landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health.

EPA Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi claimed that the 2024 amendments to the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards had “imposed burdensome and unnecessary requirements that put grid reliability and baseload power at risk,” adding that human health protections established in 2012 remain in place.

“By repealing these needless and costly changes made by the Biden-Harris administration, we are demonstrating that we do not need to choose between protecting human health and economic grow – we can choose BOTH,” he wrote in a social media post. The EPA says rescinding the standards is expected to save an estimated $670 million.

Health experts and environmental groups say that the decision is a grave mistake that could come with deadly consequences for all Americans.

“It is unconscionable from a public health standpoint and a further betrayal of EPA’s mission,” the American Lung Association said, pointing out that the EPA had granted exemptions to dozens of power plants earlier this year.

The American Public Health Association wrote that the standards had been life-saving, reducing nearly 90 percent of mercury emissions from the power sector.

“Millions are breathing cleaner air because of these protections under the Clean Air Act, and we urge EPA to rescind this dangerous decision,” it said.

The Sierra Club said that the Trump administration’s action would triple the amount of mercury the nation’s “dirtiest plants” are allowed to release, leaving the public at a greater risk of heart and lung disease, developmental delays and learning disabilities, cancer and premature death.

“This is the complete opposite of making Americans healthy,” Sierra Club Climate Policy Director Patrick Drupp said in a statement. “This is despicable and reckless, and we will continue to defend our communities from these health hazards caused by coal plants.”

The Trump administration is pushing to ramp up fossil fuel production and revitalize the coal industry, which had taken blows during the Biden administration. The EPA wrote that repealing the standards was another step to reversing “Democrats’ war on beautiful clean coal.”

John Walke, senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council and a former attorney in the EPA’s Office of General Counsel, said that the industry was in decline regardless, and that “dismantling clean air protections won’t bring it back.”

“It will only lead to more asthma attacks, more heart problems, and more premature deaths, especially in communities living in the shadow of coal plants,” he said.

Coal plants spew the major greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, but are also the largest emitters of mercury. They account for 42 percent of total U.S. air emissions, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

American coal plants emitted 45,676 pounds of mercury in 2014, according to the EPA’s National Emissions Inventory.

The health effects of mercury exposure may depend on your level of exposure, what form it’s in, your age and health.

Methylmercury is the form that Americans encounter most frequently and the majority of exposures occur through eating fish and shellfish that contain high levels.

The fish are exposed to the poisonous substance when gaseous mercury from air pollution falls into bodies of water. In the water, bacteria can change it into methylmercury, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Mercury exposure can lead to damage to the kidneys, nervous system and liver in adults, according to scientists.

Mercury is the most harmful during the developmental stages. Infants can be exposed when their mothers eat fish that contain methylmercury, affecting their brains with impacts to their thinking, memory, attention, language and spatial skills, according to the EPA.

Research from the University of Rochester has shown that mercury exposure may disrupt the early development of the connections between muscles and the brain, potentially leading to motor control problems later in life.

Blood mercury levels above 100 nanograms per milliliter – the measurement of mercury – are linked to clear signs of mercury poisoning, such as poor muscle coordination and tingling and numbness in fingers and toes, according to the New York State Department of Health.

There are no confirmed deaths from mercury poisoning in the U.S.

Notably, Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said he was once poisoned by mercury due to eating a lot of tuna.

“The mercury is coming from those coal-burning power plants,” Kennedy said while testifying before Congress in 2008. “In 49 states, at least some of the fish are unsafe to eat.”

It’s been 14 years since the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards were first finalized under former President Barack Obama, resulting in legal challenges.

In 2012, the EPA said its rule would help reduce mercury emissions, projecting as many as 11,000 fewer deaths from polluting power plants.

In 2024, updates expanded emissions monitoring, set stricter pollution limits and eliminated a regulatory loophole that facilities used to exceed emission limits each time they started up.

Repealing these protections will allow more mercury and toxic air pollution, said Surbhi Sarang, Senior Attorney at Environmental Defense Fund.

“This handout to a dying industry will result in more deaths, chronic health problems, and suffering among children, the elderly, and pregnant women,” Ryan Maher, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement shared with The Independent.

“No one voted for dirtier air, higher medical bills, and sicker kids, but that’s what Trump is delivering.”

Air pollution is responsible for more than 135,000 early deaths each year in the U.S., according to the State Department, and a World Economic Forum study found it costs Americans $2,500 a year in health care.