Steroids, Not Mercury, Capture the Headlines

Re “EPA Targets Mercury ‘Hot Spots’ at Power Plants,” March 16: The Environmental Protection Agency has released its long-awaited rule to address increasing concerns about mercury contamination of the nation’s air, water and food supplies. The rule will permit three times the amount of mercury from U.S. power plants as allowed under the Clean Air Act. Mercury, a heavy metal, presents serious adverse health effects, especially to children and fetuses. Because their brains and nervous systems are still developing, children are in far greater jeopardy than adults. According to the EPA, 630,000 newborn Americans annually are at risk from elevated mercury levels.

So the House Commerce Committee, with jurisdiction over such matters, holds nationally publicized oversight hearings on ... steroid use in baseball. The reported reason for doing so is to protect the nation’s children from the steroid menace. I do not mean to understate the role of steroids in professional sports. Perhaps steroid use is rampant on the sandlots and throughout Little League. I personally think Major League Baseball should vacate most records reached over the last three decades. Nonetheless, such a “give them bread and give them circuses” approach to congressional oversight by our present one-party government should give all of us serious pause. Somewhere Nero is fiddling.

Al Meyerhoff

Studio City