Titan’s hired toxicology consultant, Dr. Rick Pleus of Seattle-based Intertox, has finally released his report on the health impacts of Titan’s mercury—which will double the county’s current emissions of the known neurotoxin. Not surprisingly, Dr. Pleus has found that Titan’s mercury emissions will have absolutely no impacts on our health—even if sensitive populations lived right under the stack! His advice to local residents? Stop worrying…oh and eat less fish from the Northeast Cape Fear River, because some of us, it turns out, eat quite a lot of fish from the river, and those bass and sunfish are chock full of mercury! Oh, and while we’re cleaning up our unhealthy diets, Dr. Pleus recommends that the school district come up with a safety plan in case, oh, some accident happens and there’s a big release of toxic emissions from Titan’s kiln.

Thank you, Dr. Pleus!

The News & Observer newspaper of Raleigh–the paper of record for much of the state–has weighed in on Titan Cement and found it wanting. In a strongly worded editorial in today’s paper, the newspaper ticked off many of the major problems with the proposed plant–toxic mercury, destruction of vulnerable wetlands, an already impaired watershed, and carbon-dioxide emissions, and ended with the 450 million dollar question: “[C]an we have this new plant at an acceptable cost to its neighbors and the environment? If the price is seriously impaired air, the answer must be no.”

The editorial came after a long article on the proposed plant in Friday’s News and Observer, that raised the issue throughout the state.

Let’s hope our state legislators are listening. Better yet, send them an email asking for a moratorium on cement plants just to make sure.