Whoa: Mercury in HFCS

First that whole insane peanut contamination thing, and now this:

Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury

First off, thanks to Amy (soon to be Dr. Amy, PhD) for tipping me off to this.

Second, the SweetSurprise.com or SweetSuckers.com or whatever-the-HFCS-Marketing-Board-calls-themselves people can bite me. Hard. (We talked about those beyond ridiculous commercials promoting HFCS a few months ago here. If you are not in a mood for one of my rants, don't read that post.)

Third, I had a Dr. Pepper yesterday. A full-on, real Dr. Pepper with HFCS. It tasted good, if shocking because it had been a long time. But you know what? It wasn't worth it. If I'm going to take a chance with my body and future reproductive capability by ingesting mercury, it's going to be in the form of delicious, delicious tuna sashimi.

Now, if you read the full article (and I hope you do--I shouldn't be your primary news source any more than Jon Stewart is), you'll see that there's definitely technology to make mercury-free HFCS. So there are two ways to avoid the mercury contamination: 1) Stop ingesting HFCS, and 2) Push back and make contact with the comapnies that make your favorite HFCS-laden foods and call them and ask for mercury-free HFCS. If enough people push back, they'll do it. (Remember when goldfish crackers still had trans-fats? Consumer pushed back and now they don't.)

What's your take on this? Is it going to affect what you buy and eat? And which would you choose: sushi or soda?

Comments

[Shalini]

Or you can drink Dr. Pepper from Dublin Texas.. it's made with PURE cane Sugar..and tastes SO much better than the HCFS stuff...but it's hard to get as you have to be in the Dublin, Waco, or Stephenville, Texas area... but it's gooooood!

Here in Australia, I've found very little food with little to zero HCFS... I wonder if this is all just in the US... but I bet it's not...

I agree try to steer around it or use the non mercury containing HCFS... how is it that any mercury ingestion could be acceptable to the FDA or anywhere else?

[Diane]

Here's a link to a pdf download of the biggest offenders, for anyone interested:

http://www.healthobservatory.org/library.cfm?refID=105040

I stopped buying HFCS-laden products months ago, but the ONE thing I would still buy with some regularity is the one ranked highest on the list. Figures, no?

[choco]

what about regular corn syrup. I got this stupid hippie chocolate syrup and it tastes ALL WRONG. can I eat the regular hershey kind? dammit.

[Jill in Atlanta]

I buy almost exclusively store brand products. How can I know if they make their "strawberry fruit and grain bars" in the same factory as Nutri Grain? Often generics are made in the same place.

[christina]

yeah, take that Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Buttersworth -- coming from Vermont, I always knew those two were up to no good.

[stacy]

Ugh. I've been mostly HFCS-free at home for a long while now (there are some small advantages to being a chronic yo-yo dieter, I guess) but I hate knowing that I can only protect my kid for so long. I can feed him 99% Good Stuff at home - assuming the definition of Good Stuff doesn't change, as it is sometimes wont to do - but as he gets older, he's going to eat at friends' houses, at school, at restaurants, without me breathing down his neck.

Well, Moxie is right as usual. The people who make this stuff are scum. And it's clear from the article that none of it is any surprise to them. Sometimes I just want to throw up my hands - why am I sweating about what kind of tuna I eat when my body is already full of this crap from a childhood spent consuming HFCS?

[stacy]

I'm sure almost everyone knows this, but if you're a soda fan, stock up on Coke around Passover time, in the Spring. Coke that is labeled Kosher for Passover is made from real sugar, since certain Jewish groups won't eat corn derivatives during Passover.

[shanna]

Sushi. No question.

The only soda we keep at home now is plain seltzer and a stockpile of kosher for Passover Coca-Cola (which is made with cane syrup, not HFCS), which I go through so slowly that I may as well not bother buying again this spring. I think we've finally eliminated HFCS from our at-home foods, and I just don't ask questions when we're at somebody else's place for lunch or dinner.

Mercury. Wow.

[Eva]

We already avoid HFCS, partially-hydrogenated oils, and MSG (and all the ingredients hiding MSG--there are tons). It's made a big difference in my health. I don't like soda anyway so it'd be the sushi for sure.

[Summer J]

Sushi. Is that why I can't get pregnant, because I eat a pile of tuna and eel sushi every week?

[hydrogeek]

http://www.dublindrpepper.com/

Go there, buy sweet, sweet Dr. Pepper made with only pure cane sugar, year around. They will ship it to you! Shalini is right, it is wonderful.

(Yes, I am a die hard Dr.Pepper fan. Still think I might choose the sushi if it came down to the "which mercury must I ingest" question.)

[Chaya]

First thing I asked for after giving birth to my daughter was a tuna melt. But my OB said to be careful with mercury consumption even when not pregnant, so still rationing tuna\salmon a few times a month.
HFCS has been a no-no as much as possible in this house for a few years, it just really bugged me. Trader Joes makes a good chocolate syrup without it. Makes me feel so much better to not put that stuff into my kids' milk. Not that sugar is MUCH better, but it is better. My problem is ketchup! My boy love love loves ketchup, and I haven't found kosher ketchup without HFCS. Any ideas?
Anyone want to grocery shopping with me? 3 kids under 6,Food allergies, kosher, AND no HFCS...and I wonder why it takes me soo long. And costs me so much.

[sheSaid]

SUSHI! I had read that my own personal soon to be Dr :) I cut HFCS out awhile ago and my migraines are gone, so I would say, ditch it!

[Helena]

Daddytypes posted this yesterday, and has a (sort of difficult to follow the snark if you're tired) discussion about the validity of the study results:

http://daddytypes.com/2009/01/28/dt_wtf_wednesday_studies_find_mercury_in_high_fructose_corn_syrup.php

[Shannon]

I'm just gonna go ahead and go on my own rant here. I have a husband who won't eat anything cold, and hates most vegetables. I have a toddler who is a typical picky toddler. And, oh yeah, I don't want to spend 50 million dollars on groceries. Every single day they tell us something else we can't eat. I really don't want to devote my whole life to finding and preparing safe foods, or trying to force them on my family. Why don't they just go ahead and start selling food in pill form like we all thought they would do in the future?

[Foster]

Oh, I would choose soda 100% of the time! I hate seafood and loooooove soda!

My absolute favourite from that article is the line at the end: '"The good news is that mercury-free HFCS ingredients exist. Food companies just need a good push to only use those ingredients," Wallinga said in his prepared statement.' REALLY??? REALLY, they need a push from consumers to stop putting POISON IN OUR FOOD? Excuse me, I thought we already gave the food industry a push by creating LAWS. Holy freaking shit. I wont be able to buy handmade toys for my kid soon, but I can still feed her poison at will, God bless America!

Now, the question is, do I have to be one of Those People again and e-mail all of my mommy friends about this.. Ugh, I HATE having to do that, but I feel WAY too guilty if I dont :(

[Brooke]

HFCS gives me yeast infections. Learned that in college when I gave up pop for Lent. We don't eat a lot of it. Well, at least not at home. Kiddo gets a ton at school, but not much I can easily do about that. No more bringing home late snack from school.

I wish I felt comfortable eating sushi but not until I am done nursing, at least not most fish. It makes me so angry that we have poisoned our environment so much that food isn't safe.

I will say that I am so thankful her school is peanut-free, so I haven't had to worry about the peanut butter recall. Also, what is up with that? They got positive results when testing for Salmonella, but sold it anyway (after getting it retested at a different lab).

[Nella]

ARGH! I hate mass food production so much!

How can we have such an unsafe food supply and expect to be even remotely healthy? This makes me so angry. I know how bad HFCS is for you and what it does to your body (hence the reason my family and I cut it out of our diets years ago) but this is just a total slap in the face.

That settles it, I'm buying a farm and raising my own food because I just can't take this madness any more!

[Foster]

One of the questions was if we consume hfcs. Due to budgetary rearrangement, I am able to do all of our grocery shopping at Whole Foods/the Co-op again, so not very much when we eat at home, which is for almost all meals/snacks (dh takes lunch to work, so still made at home).

[Susan]

@chaya, our Whole Foods has a ketchup from the brand Organicville that is made with agave nectar sweetener, not HCFS. I don't have the bottle in front of me, so I can't say if it is kosher. But my son loves it as much as any sugar-laden stuff.

[sueinithaca]

sushi, hands down. Though I live in a small town in upstate NY, and try to eat as locally as possible, so sushi isn't much of an option for me any more. Ah well, less mercury is good.

I've had a HFCS ban in the house since getting pregnant with my first, 5 years ago. It takes a lot of energy and education to avoid it in packaged goods, so I don't buy much. I've recently relaxed the HFCS ban (as well as the local-only rule) to allow fruit snacks, but am going to have to re-ban. Which is too bad. My two-year old will do almost anything for them (except use the potty). Anyone know of any NON-HFCS containing fruit snacks?

[kristen]

So let me get this straight. I refused a flu shot for my child this year because they didn't have a mercury free one in my area but the Sprite I gave in and let him have with lunch yesterday....

It is so damn frustrating trying to figure all this crap out!

[sueinithaca]

Oh, and not to be a scary person, but there ave been recent reports of honey laundering, where honey coming from China is relabeled as being from Australia or some other source. The honey is often cut with, you guessed it, corn syrup. Just another reason to buy from your neighbor instead of the supermarket.

Here's one link to an article discussing the problem
http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/honey_laundering.htm

http://current.com/items/89669029/honey_laundering_contaminated_chinese_honey_in_u_s.htm

[Sarah]

At least in Canada, most store bought sushi (including that from Whole Foods) is made with HFCS -- it's used to sweeten the rice. A lot of restaurants use it too - it's cheaper than traditional sweeteners. So, not necessarily a sushi vs. soda debate :)

Also, I learned from Hedra last time we discussed HFCS that it goes by other names in Canada / Australia etc. Here is often goes by sucrose/fructose which, sure enough, is in all sorts of products (e.g. my Dempster's 100% Whole Grain Bread) that I used to buy not knowing I was feeding my child HFCS for breakfast everyday. Very annoying.

I'm at the point where if it doesn't simply state "cane sugar" or "sugar" in the ingredients, I don't buy it. Anything along the lines of fructose-sucrose is most likely HFCS.

[Amy M]

I'm a big label reader and we shop at Whole Foods, and yet it is still hard to avoid all HFCS's and have some "easy" options to make for dinner. Thankfully my 2 y.o. daughter's daycare serves pretty nutritious food, so I have until elementary school to feel like I know what's going in her mouth...

When I'm done being pregnant I will go back to sushi. I rarely drink soda anyway, but I may still have the occassional 7-Up when I'm sick - It's one of my tummy ache comfort foods and I've never found anything that works as well for me in that case...

@ Chaya - I'm not sure about kosher, but I'm 90% sure that Heinz organic ketchup has no HFCS. My husband can't tell the difference and I feel better when he goes on a fry frenzy.

[Diane]

Sarah - The concern with the sushi isn't about it containing HFCS, it is with the levels of mercury found in the fish. If you compare the amount of mercury found in one can of white tuna with the amount of mercury found in these foods ... well, let's just say you'd have to drink a LOT of Dr. Pepper to equal that one can of tuna.

[heather]

Sarah, I believe HFCS is labelled "glucose-fructose" here in Canada. I checked a can of Pepsi and sure enough, "glucose-fructose" is on the ingredients list.

For those who like hot chocolate, try the Cocoa Camino brand. It's not cheap and it's not always available in general grocery stores, but it's so worth it. No HFCS/glucose-fructose (unlike Nestle's hot chocolate) and delicious, rich, chocolate. YUM.

[Sarah]

Diane - thanks, I get that. It's just that in Canada at least it looks like most sushi has both problems, the mercury in the fish plus the mercury and all the other crap in the HFCS. So, pregnant or not, probably not the healthiest choice :(

[rudyinparis]

Chaya, we buy Annie's ketchup (Annie's of the mac & cheese)--I don't know if it's kosher, but I bet it doesn't have HFCS. And it's pretty good.

[Mazlynn]

sueinithaca - if you're talking about fruit roll up types, you can make home-made fruit leather. (One sample recipe here: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/007277how_to_make_fruit_leather.php)

I've made it before when I ended up swamped with apples one year, and I personally liked it. Don't know if it would be enough like the "real" thing to make picky kids happy though.

[choco]

that trader joe's syrup tastes WEIRD to me. and it doesn't go in the milk all smooth and nice. damn you, habituation!

[Michelle]

Well I hate sushi and tuna in any form and don't really feed it to the kids either. Since I'm pregnant, I'm currently drinking Hanson's soda which I don't think has HFCS (guess I need to double-check) when I get the soda urge. I would have to pry soda out of my husband's hand though.

It is so infuriating that HFCS is in every damn thing. I try to limit it as much as possible but I'm finding it almost impossible to completely ban. Like bbq sauce, we loooove bbq but ALL the commercial sauces have HFCS. I searched and searched and FINALLY found one without and...it tasted like ass. Ick!

[Diane]

Sarah - Sorry if I misinterpreted your post! Reading while nursing an 8-week-old and conversing with a 2-year-old makes for lower reading comprehension sometimes.

[Keri]

Unbelievable. I've done my best to keep it out of the house, but I know it sneaks in with stuff like ketchup and whatnot.

Someone upthread mentioned agave nectar. I started buying it last year, after reading how it was a better sweetener. But I've recently read that its fructose levels are just as high as in HFCS and that it is problematic like HCFS because fructose does not give one a feeling of satiety like sucrose does.

So know I'm wondering if I bought into clever marketing hype and agave nectar is really just yippie HCFS. Anyone know more?

Also, I recently discovered that pureeing plain berries and adding a bit of maple syrup to taste makes a great all-purpose sauce for stuff like pancakes, yogurt, etc.

[Abacaxi Mamao]

Sushi. No doubt about it.

I think I need to cut down on junk more generally, and as a result of that, would cut down on HFCS. But I'm not yet 100% on board with this plan to cut down on junk, since I like junk a whole lot.

[Mar]

Can someone confirm (or dispute) this working theory: HFCS is problematic only when it's in all or most of what we eat and particularly problematic when it's in "health" foods (like the nutrigrain bars - those faux-quotes are purposeful) and staples, like bread.
I am generally health conscious, especially with label reading and mercury (I've personally had mercury poisoning and I have a two year old with food allergies) but I'm thinking that HFCS in, say, ketchup or jelly isn't that much of a concern unless ketchup or jelly is consumed at extreme rates. Using a HFCS condiment as a condiment (occasional and sparing) should be a concern -- or am I being too lax here?

[Mar]

that should say "Using a HFCS condiment as a condiment (occasional and sparing) should NOT be a concern -- or am I being too lax here?"

[Elana]

For a fascinating history of corn in America, including its journey from a highly resilient and malleable crop to HFCS, read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It's spellbinding, and disturbing.

I vote for sushi, of course! (being from British Columbia, it's almost a religion).

[rudyinparis]

I don't think you're being too lax, Mar. You know, I called DH after reading the article and told him and he said: "We don't really eat that stuff. Besides, isn't all that crap in the air and the soil and all that?" So I do think a reality check is good. I believe anyone here is doing the best they can for their kids, and shouldn't be beating themselves up over it. It's good to know, though. I'm glad to find out. Just one more little thing that helps me be informed. And, as always, it's the poor that bear the brunt of bad decisions at the top.

[Cloud]

Mom-101 had a thread on this, too, and I posted my opinion (at embarrassing length) there. I've had a terrible morning with a tantruming toddler, so I apologize, I'll probably be much more rant-y here.

The report, which is from some policy institute and not the sources I usually like to get health studies from (e.g., academic labs, health research institutes, etc) lists mercury content in parts per TRILLION. The FDA's limits for mercury content in fish is in parts per MILLION, and the EPA's limits for mercury content in drinking water is in parts per BILLION. I looked up the recommended mercury intake limits (set with pregnant women in mind) and did the math for Oatmeal on the Go, one of the foods with the highest mercury levels in the report. You'd have to eat 30 breakfast bars in a day to hit the intake limit.

So in short- I don't think the amount of mercury found is worth worrying about. By all means, avoid HFCS if you want to, but if you don't, I don't think you need to worry about mercury poisoning.

Probably it would be better to get rid of the mercury. I'd have to go look at the replacement process and think about its likely environmental impacts to have a real opinion on that. But I do think this report is alarmist beyond what its actual data supports.

I'm actually getting quite sick of these sorts of "scientific" reports from policy institutes that clearly have agendas beyond accurately reporting health risks to consumers. I think they are preying on the normal fears of parents about the safety of their kids to get us worked up to support their agenda, which I think is a pretty crappy thing to do. I have a hard enough time sorting through the potential risks without these people using overinterpretted test results to add to my worries. I no longer take any report like this seriously until I go and read what they actually measured and compare that to the information in the actual peer-reviewed scientific literature.

OK, end rant.

[Lindz]

Another soda non-HFCS option for you is Abita Rootbeer. It's not generally available in the supermarket, but it can be ordered at any liquor store (along with their non-soda options like Abita Amber and Turbo Dog). They use pure cane sugar in it instead of HFCS. And it tastes really good in rootbeer floats. :)

[ada]

@ Cloud - Thanks for the info. I too try to take all of this with a grain of salt.

That being said, I'm trying to cut back on the HFCS my family eats. Because I know eliminating, or reducing, it from my diet cannot hurt us. People lived without it for hundred of years and were just fine.

We've had good success shopping at Trader Joe's for products without HFCS. And TJ's doesn't break the bank like Whole Foods does.

[Catherine]

Cloud, thank you for that rant and clarification: the distinction between parts per trillion, billion, and million is indeed critical here, and reduces my anxiety level a lot. Your point in your comment over on Mom-101 (which is emphasized more in the post on Daddy Types) about the fact that this report was issued by a "research institute" or some such thing, rather than the EPA or the FDA, and was NOT subject to scientific peer review, is also an important point.

(Can you tell I'm a librarian who spends her days convincing students of the importance of the peer-review process?)

To Mar, I think you're spot-on. Here's how I think of it: yes, HFCS is not something we want to be eating a lot of. Yes, it's in a LOT of processed foods. But in most of those processed foods, it's either in very small amounts (how many grams of HFCS can there REALLY be in a slice of whole-wheat bread?) or it's a food that we don't eat in huge amounts - like ketchup. The major offenders, as I see it, are non-diet sodas, "juice" drinks that aren't 100% juice, and jams/jellies. If we cut those out -- and really, that's a lot easier than reading every $#@%@!#% label in the grocery store -- we've eliminated the largest part of the problem.

So that's what I do: no soda, 100% juice, and very little jam/jelly (and I try to get sugar-only versions, or even better, all-fruit versions), and don't sweat the rest of it.

And as for tuna, I'd always been under the impression that "basic" tuna is pretty much okay, at least in moderation: it's the white/albacore/"fancy" tuna that you have to be wary of. Am I wrong about that?

[Catherine]

Update on the tuna question: FDA/EPA says canned "light" tuna is among the 5 lowest-mercury fish choices, but albacore is higher in mercury: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg3.html

[hedra]

I'm with the 'the levels are microscopic/don't drink the ketchup by the gallon/wait for some serious research to come out' team.

There's heavy metals contamination in all sorts of things. This one went by my radar with a shrug. Granted, we don't consume HFCS anyway (or agave, which at least has trace nutrients in it). But the products were not really tested in a manner I consider 'solid', and the values weren't shocking to me even then.

Granted, I also read it from a site that said essentially 'okay, so someone go test this for real and see if it is a valid concern, and then get back to us'. I agree.

I get my science news as much as possible from journals, because everyone else spins it (okay, even the scientists spin it just by what they submit to publish and how they state the results, too, but the weightier the research, the harder they have to work to overstate the case - plus they have to expose the methods, which tends to make it more obvious when someone did a less-than-careful job of it).

[Brooke]

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI, which I generally respect) has argued that the FDA's listed amount of mercury in tuna is too low. That is that tuna actually contains more.

At least mercury leaves the body, unlike lead which pretty much just sticks around.

[hedra]

@Mar, it IMHO isn't the HFCS per se that is the issue. All the problems linked to HFCS are the same with any high-fructose-load product or food. The average US diet includes 54g of fructose (compared with the amount easily absorbed for digestion in the liver, around 24g/day).

Cutting back is the major point. BUT, cutting back on your apple juice (100% juice), mango, and wheat consumption will also improve your profile of consumption. It isn't just the HFCS, it's the honey, agave, pear juice concentrate, applesauce-base for fruit chews and leathers, apple juice as the base for most juice blends, etc.

It is well known medically (it is in all the hospital handouts I have on fructose malabsorption) that some people are particularly sensitive to HFCS specificially - I'm one of them (I can do agave and honey and apples fine, but HFCS gives me rage attacks and depression, totally messes with my serotonin level I suspect - that's a side effect of fermentation, and the sensitivity to HFCS may be related mostly to what bacteria live in your gut, rather than some genetic thing). Um, anyway, if you're not sensitive to it, it's probably fine to just dial down all your fructose intake, including but not limited to HFCS. If you react to it (not too hard to test for - avoid fructose for 4 days, then have a normal soda (but keep the rest of the fructose load low), and see what happens to your mood - and digestion - over the next 2-12 hours), then pull it from your diet entirely. If not, then just dial the whole thing back to a saner level. Quickest ways to do that are cutting out juice except white grape and froz concentrated oj, cutting back or out foods sweetened with HFCS (keep in mind that it is less sweet than sugar, so they use more of it to get the same sweetness), and keep a cap on apple, pear, mango, and pit-fruits (peach, apricot, etc.). It is okay to use things with just sugar in them (Nesquick powder for chocolate milk is decent, no red dye, no HFCS).

But I will recommend the organic Trader Joe's ketchup. It tastes like ketchup tasted when I was a kid.

[Chaya]

Thanks for all the ketchup ideas..now i have to go check all the labels. I know the store brand organics near me are not kosher, but I hadn't seen the other brands. And, I know ketchup as a condiment is not the biggest deal (we don't have the issues Hedra described, so a small amount is probably irrelevant), but this boy does NOT eat ketchup as a condiment. Anyway, I think I use this issue as one way to quickly guage food quality. As a nutritionist I once spoke to said, if the company went to the effort to not put hfcs in it, and we are going to be checking labels, then all around we are going to be doing better.
So, less packaged stuff, and healthier choices among the packaged stuff, is only going to do us good in the long run.
ok, off to go ketchup shopping.

[pnuts mama]

quick comments as i have a babysitter watching the bean as i finish up this chapter:

1. anything label USDA organic should not have HFCS in it- it will usually have cane sugar or other natural suger.

2. any bread that has the American Heart Association label on it (it's a red heart that CLEARLY says american heart association- many brands put a red heart on their bread wrappers with some line about being heart healthy, it's a way to trick you) won't have HFCS in it, and probably has better amts of fiber/whole grains in it. some pepperidge farms bread has it, and you can get them on sale at target for 2 or 2.50 a loaf some weeks, stock up in the freezer if you have the space.

3. any time you eat any whole food, or a recipe/meal created from whole foods (not the store, i mean something that didn't come out of a box) you are less likely to ingest something that is bad for your body, period. honestly, we don't have any idea how all of the chemicals that have been developed in the last century and used in our water and food supply/ingested by us will effect us in the long run- some things show up quickly as easily identified carcinogens but i imagine plenty more will be proven with time to have caused a variety of detrimental health risks. this isn't to say that chemicals or chemistry is bad, or that science or progress is bad, but to re-evaluate who grows and creates our food, and what their motivations are, and what the cost is to the consumer and our planet. the point isn't to be scared (well, i guess it is disturbing) but to be informed, and make your choices based on the best available information. rudyinparis is right that it is most often the poorest among us who bear the brunt of ill health effects from poor food consumption.

4. we gave up hfcs a long time ago, but break the rule occasionally, never in large amounts if we can help it, because, the reality is, unless i never socialize or eat out again, or don't eat convenience foods when it's convenient, i may as well give up my lifestyle completely and go live in a van down by the river. i would caution that while the amounts of hfcs you ingest in say, condiments, may be small in quantity, it's the fact that we eat an awful lot of foods that have hfcs in them every day, so it adds up quickly.

5. sushi over soda any day of the week, and i grew as concerned over the amount of BPA found in cans to make me switch from canned tuna to the kind in a pouch. hey! another bunch of letters that gets me all worked up! agh!

[Chris Coccaro]

Thanks for covering this! I work on Oceana's Campaign to Stop Seafood Contamination, which has been working since 2005 to get the chlor-alkali industry to go mercury-free. Since then, 5 of the 9 plants that were using outdated technology at that time have announced plans to stop using mercury. To email the companies that own the remaining four plants and ask them to switch to modern technology, go to http://takeaction.oceana.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11215

In the last couple of sessions of Congress, we have worked with then-Senator Obama to introduce legislation that would ban mercury in chlor-alkali production by 2012. We will be working to make sure the legislation passes this year!