New For S. Carolina Boat Docks - Signs Warning About Mercury Content In Fish - Post & Courier

[hatrack]

Amid rising concerns about mercury pollution, health officials plan to put up warning signs at boat landings across the state. They also are considering a first-ever program to test people's mercury levels.

Calling mercury contamination a "major public health issue," Edwin Cooper, a Charleston lawyer and member of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control's board of commissioners, suggested posting placards at boat landings during an agency meeting last month.

Cooper said Thursday that the warning sign issue "had been on my personal radar for a number of years," but that he also was spurred by The Post and Courier's recent series, "The Mercury Connection."

The series identified mercury hot spots in the Edisto River/Four Holes Swamp area and along the Little Pee Dee and Lynches rivers, and showed how some people who eat fish from these waterways have unusually high levels of mercury in their bodies. So far, DHEC has issued advisories warning people not to eat certain species of fish in more than 1,700 miles of South Carolina rivers, mostly in the coastal plain.

EDIT

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/jan/05/s_c_boat_landings_get_signs_warning_abou26734/

Coal fired power plants - Too Cheap To Meter!!!

[Redneck Socialist]

1. Longtime issue in NH

We've had those warnings for years in my state. I used to live on a lake with some of the highest mercury concentrations in the state. I'd pretty much rather fish than breathe but needless to say I don't eat the fish. :-(

[RamblingRose]

2. I thought they already had signs in SC at Lake Hartwell while GA refuses to put any up.

I remember reading this article in the AJC a while back and it
left me speechless.  Yet Georgia still bills itself as a great
fishing state. (article is archived)


LAKE HARTWELL: ANGLERS' PARADISE OR PERIL?: YOU CAN FISH HERE.
WOULD IT BE WISE?
Cancer-related chemicals in Hartwell reservoir make eating
fish risky. State says no signs are needed.
Date: February 11, 2007 Publication: Atlanta
Journal-Constitution


WHAT'S THE ISSUE?

The state plans to build boat ramps and docks to make it
easier to get to the fish. It's also adding more hybrid and
striped bass -- fatty-fleshed fish that absorb and retain the
most PCBs.

Hart County -- The state plans to spend millions of dollars to
make Lake Hartwell more fishing-friendly, but state officials
won't spend another dime telling anglers at the northeast
Georgia reservoir that eating their catch could lead to