New limits on mercury in air may also help animals, which have been affected more than we thought

The Environmental Protection Agency's new rules limiting power-plant air pollution will affect human and animal health, according to researchers at the Biodiversity Research Institute. The limits will likely have a positive impact on a "broad array" of wildlife affected by mercury, reports Anthony DePalma of The New York Times. Researchers found that methyl mercury, the heavy metal's most toxic form, is widespread in forests, mountaintops, bogs and marshes in Northeastern states where species were thought to be at low risk for mercury contamination. The region was once drenched with acid rain from coal-fired plants in the Midwest.

Researchers said the highest levels of mercury were in marshes and beaver ponds that go through wet and dry cycles. Songbirds and bats suffer neurological disorders from mercury just as humans do, and some feel the effects at much lower levels than previously thought. Birds with only 0.7 parts per million of mercury in their system showed a 10 percent reduction of successfully hatched eggs. Contaminated birds were also more likely to abandon nests and display abnormal feeding behavior, and pass the effects on to chicks. Rutgers University behavioral ecologist Joanna Burger said it's "incredibly important" that someone follow the phenomenon: "The birds not only act as sentinels to what is happening in nature, but the results of these studies propose hypotheses for effects that have not yet been identified for people." (Read more)