Bluestem Action Alert for April 11, 2005

Support the Mercury-Free Vehicles Act

Please call your state representative and state senator and tell them to vote yes on HB 1628, the Mercury-Free Vehicle Act, sponsored by Karen May.

In Illinois alone 396 pounds of mercury enter the atmosphere every year when cars are junked at the end of the vehicle’s life, according to the Illinois EPA. The Clean Air Campaign believes the number is closer to 800 pounds. One gram of mercury contaminates a 20-acre lake.

The Mercury-Free Vehicle Act will require automobile manufacturers to create and fund a program to remove mercury-containing switches from vehicles at the end of life of the vehicle. Automobile dismantlers and recyclers will be able to voluntarily participate in the program and will receive an incentive payment of $3 per switch and $15 per ABS brake unit removed.

Although automobile manufacturers stopped using mercury switches in the United States in 2003, it is estimated that 217 million switches were installed in vehicles from 1974 to 2003 for a total of almost half a million pounds of mercury. It is the mercury from these older cars that this bill will prevent from entering Illinois’ atmosphere.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that creates brain damage in children and fetuses, as well as health risks for the general population. A recent study by the University of Texas found that autism rates increased dramatically as mercury emissions increased. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2004 that more than one in six children born in the U.S. are at risk for developmental disorders caused by mercury. Every lake, river and stream in Illinois is polluted with mercury and there are fish advisories for pregnant women and children not to eat fish more than once a week.

HB 1628 will come up for a vote in the Illinois House of Representatives in the next couple weeks. If it passes the House it will go to the Senate. Please call both your Illinois representative and senator today and tell them to vote yes on H.B. 1628, the Mercury-Free Vehicle Act.

To find out who your state senator and representative are, as well as their email and specific call information, use the following website: http://www.elections.state.il.us/dls/pages/DLSAddresscrit.asp

Thank you for all you do!

Linda Sullivan

lsullivan23@hotmail.com