Culminating a two-year campaign to build public awareness of the danger and extent of power plant mercury pollution in Illinois, and with two upcoming votes on the proposed rule to reduce this pollution, Environment Illinois launched an advertising campaign highlighting mercury's toxic impact on children's and fetus's neurological development.

The two print ads, which feature, respectively, a boy learning to ride a bicycle and a girl in a spelling bee, point out that children will face enough challenges in their lifetimes without the negative health impacts of power plant mercury pollution.

The ads ran during the last week in September in daily newspapers in several large Illinois media markets. They are also were on display throughout the month of September on Chicago Transit Authority's brown, red, blue, and orange line trains and on the CapitolFax Blog, a popular Illinois news website.