Existing Technology can Slash Mercury, Toxic Power Plant Emissions that Harm Children

This well-researched paper points to delays in issuing EPA guidelines under the 1990 Clean Air Act for pollution control devices to reduce mercury, lead and arsenic emissions from coal-burning power plants in the US. In 17 states that already have these regulations in place, superseding the federal limits, the scrubbing equipment was cost-effective to install and resulted in dramatically reduced emissions. Nonetheless, several of the country's largest coal plant operators are fighting to delay the new limits which would bring economic benefits, in terms of reduced sickness and disease, between $48 billion and $130 billion in 2016 alone. Coal plants emit 40% of the mercury in this country and the toxin causes severe developmental disabilities, deafness and blindness with prenatal and infant exposure.
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/21/249960/slashing-mercury-toxic-power-plant-emissions-that-harm-children-can-be-done-with-existing-technology/