EDITORIAL
Why poison our air — and our favorite fish?

Today we know that poisonous emissions from Hawai'i's power plants and oil refineries have a chilling effect on our food supply.

Through a process called bioaccumulation, pollutants such as mercury work their way up the food chain to the fish we most like to eat — the open-ocean predators like 'ahi, ono, opah, aku, mahi-mahi, nairagi and grouper.

It is true that Hawai'i power plants contribute small amounts of mercury compared to some Mainland states, led by Texas, which pours more than five tons of the pollutants into the atmosphere each year.

Six Hawai'i power plants are responsible for putting about 278.5 pounds into the air. This reflects Hawai'i's comparatively small consumption of electricity, plus our good fortune in using oil and coal from Indonesia, which is naturally low in sulfur and mercury.

Still, regardless of where it comes from, we risk exposing ourselves to mercury when we eat fish.

In fact, Hawai'i's residents are exposed to more food-borne mercury than most Americans because of frequent fish consumption and high levels of mercury in Hawai'i's most popular fish.

The EPA is warning us to limit the amounts of these fish we eat — young children and pregnant or breast-feeding women need to be particularly careful. But these warnings don't amount to policy.

Despite these warnings, the Bush administration continues to advocate lower targets for emissions.

The technology exists to meet Clean Air Act targets of 90 percent mercury emissions by 2008, but the administration is willing to settle for a 30 percent cut by that year.

In the meantime, federal warnings to hold down our consumption represent a thin response to a serious issue.