Planet Main PDF January/February 2006 e-mail December 20, 2005 e-mail October 28, 2005     JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006 The Power of Many   How We Saved the Arctic Refuge (For Now) Getting Somewhere on the Bridges to Nowhere Cities Get Cool Measuring Mercury Fighting for the Valle Vidal Building Trust There's No Limit to Colorado's Power Finding Common Ground Trickle-Down Activism ‘Hey, I Can Do This’ I Can Smell for Miles and Miles Building Environmental Community One Canyon at a Time Paper to Pixels Sierra Summit Soars ‘Why Live If You Don't Have Something to Struggle For?’ Expanding Excom     Club Charts Direction for Next Five Years Big Easy to Beltway: ‘Where's the Beef?’ 2005 Timeline Faces of the Sierra Club     NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 Hope Surfaces in Katrina's Wake Snapshots from the Summit Democracy Breaks Out Rally for the Arctic A Better Legacy Thoroughbred Power Plant Blocked       WHO WE ARE John Swingle Betsy Bennett Larry Fahn       INSIDER Is Your City a Cool City? Endangered Species Act Endangered Smithfield Shareholder Resolution Owens Valley Victory New Energy Bill Exploits Katrina     From the Editor: Wake of the Flood ClubBeat   Search for a Story Back Issues

WHAT WE DO BEST Measuring the Mercury Citizens take mercury contamination personally by testing themselves. Earlier this year, the Sierra Club initiated a program to test the hair of people across the country for mercury contamination. The process was simple: order a hair test kit for $25, snip off about half a gram of hair, and then answer some questions about fish consumption (the primary way most Americans are exposed to mercury), then send the sample to a lab and get the results.   In April, more than 70 New Hampshire state legislators took a break from debate to get their hair clipped and tested for mercury. That was the first of more than a dozen Sierra Clubsponsored hair-testing events across the country, part of a national clinical study of mercury contamination. Other testing sites include: Salt Lake City, Utah; Bismarck, North Dakota; Owensboro, Kentucky; Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Ardmore, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Grand Marais, Minnesota; Madison, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; Indianapolis, Indiana; and San Francisco, California (at the Sierra Summit).   > MEASURE YOUR MERCURY   The Sierra Club’s Cathy Corkery organized an early hair-testing event in New Hampshire, where state legislators interrupted debate to take a little off the top. Since then, testing has spread across the country like wildfire, with testing events in more than a dozen locations, including at the Sierra Summit, and live on public radio in Minnesota. It’s all part of a nationwide study to determine the level of mercury in the population. Preliminary results show a direct relationship between mercury levels and fish consumption. To learn more and order your own test kit, go to sierraclub.org/mercury. Up to Top