Barton and the GOP favor poisoning babies, fetuses, pregnant women -- and the rest of us

I tweeted this yesterday as an HonestGOPbumpersticker, but this is the post from Climate Progress that inspired it:

Joe ‘I am not a doctor’ Barton denies any “medical negative” for mercury, smog, and soot pollution

First off:
"The new power plant toxics rule will put over 30,000 people to work upgrading plants to dramatically reduce toxic mercury and other chemicals that cause neurological damage to fetuses and babies. Those upgrades will also cut enough particulate pollution to prevent as many as 17,000 premature deaths, 11,000 heart attacks, 120,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms, 11,000 cases of acute bronchitis among children, 12,000 emergency room visits and hospital admissions and 850,000 days of work missed due to illness."

Now, if you oppose this new toxics rule, that means that you favor causing neurological damage to fetuses and babies, as well as all the other things that not passing it will cause (i.e., poisoniong and sickening U.S. citizens). Because if you didn't favor those things, you'd see that it was important to pass the toxics rule, right?

Barton says this:
"The average 500-MW coal-fired power plant produced three pounds of mercury a year. Three pounds. According to Mr. Walke’s testimony these standards reduce this by 91 percent. Well that’s great! So you go from three pounds per plant to three tenths of a pound per plant. But that’s per year! Now, to actually cause poisoning or a premature death you have to get a large concentration of mercury into the body. I’m not a medical doctor, but my hypothesis is that’s not going to happen! You’re not going to get enough mercury exposure or SO2 exposure or even particulate matter exposure! I think the EPA numbers are pulled out of the thin air! And I’m going to send a document to the EPA, let’s back them up!"

To which I reply:

Minamata disease






Screw you, Rep. Barton.