Flutterby™! : mercury in the news

I consider releasing mercury into the air I breathe an act of violence. But, having said that, Charlene pointed out a weird bit of synchronicity yesterday when she wondered why a study which purports to show correlation between high levels of environmental mercury and autism made the news when the article she read (I've no idea if that's the one) only devoted a sentence way down to point out that this study did nothing to show cause, just correlation.

So I went searching, and noticed that a March 1991 internal memo from Merck talking about the mercury risks for vaccines showed up last month.

"When viewed in this way, the mercury load appears rather large," Dr. Maurice R. Hilleman, an internationally renowned vaccinologist, wrote in a memo to the president of Merck's vaccine division.

I found both those things showing up now interesting because I've been aware that the EPA is introducing new rules about smokestack emissions of mercury and the new rules are being roundly criticized. I know little about the rules, although I tend to side with those who say "cut it more", but I have to wonder if I'm making up patterns where none are, or if the path that some of these issues are taking into the media is well orchestrated.

(Don't worry about it, I'm safe, my tinfoil hat is blocking the transmissions.)