A March 2005 Michigan Review article by Daniel Krawiec, about Michigan University's funding of the eco-radical group PIRGIM, mentioned the American Council on Health's position on mercury risks:
So what might explain groups like PIRGIM's campaigns to eliminate power plant mercury emissions?
According to the American Council on Science and Health, "most often, these campaigns are an effort to promote legislation, regulation, and litigation that is not based in science but rather in a political agenda opposed to technology, free markets, and scientific progress."
Many left-wing environmental groups, such as PIRGIM, have a general anti-economic freedom stance. Among PIRGIM's other key issues are attacking the practices of local gas station owners trying to support their families and local banks which try to combine in order to provide consumers better access to financial services -- all in the name of "consumer protection." In recent times we have seen the severe consequences of such extreme environmentalism, as high energy taxes in Europe made air conditioning a luxury many elderly who suffered heat-related deaths could not afford
And even the link between child health and mercury may be overstated. For instance, one of the many claimed problems associated with mercury is a lower IQ. However, according to University of Iowa pediatrics professor Miles Weinberger, who wrote a chapter of an ACSH book on the subject, this link is unproven.