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

Largest-Ever Mercury Study Finds One in Five Women With Dangerous Levels Direct Relationship Found Between Mercury Levels and Fish Consumption Researchers in North Carolina released results in February of the nation’s largest study ever on the effects of mercury on the U.S. population. It analyzed hair samples from more than 6,600 women from all 50 states and found that one in five women of childbearing age exceeded the EPA’s recommended limit of 1 microgram of mercury per gram of hair. The hair samples came from public mercury-testing events sponsored by the Sierra Club and Greenpeace and individuals who ordered testing kits online and mailed a couple inches of hair to the lab. The samples were analyzed by Dr. Steve Patch and fellow researchers at the Environmental Quality Institute at the University of North Carolina-Asheville. Researchers found a direct relationship between mercury levels and fish consumption. Coal burning is the main way mercury gets into humans—rainfall brings the mercury into waterways, where it accumulates in fish and makes its way up the food chain. Mercury contamination is especially dangerous for women of childbearing years because mercury exposure in the womb can cause neurological damage and other health problems in children. Find out more about what fish are most contaminated with mercury in the Sierra Club’s handy pocket-sized Mercury Survival Guide. To download the guide, take our “Test Your Mercury I.Q.” quiz at sierraclub.org/mercury.   Illustration by Adrian Cotter Up to Top