AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  A pair of U.S. senators is introducing a plan to create a national mercury monitoring network to help protect children and pregnant women from exposure.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Delaware Democratic Sen. Tom Carper are introducing the bill, called the Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act. The senators say scientists must currently rely on too limited information to understand the links between mercury emissions and human health.

The senators say an estimated 200,000 children are born in America every year exposed to levels of mercury in the womb that are sufficient to harm neurological development. They say their bill would establish a mercury monitoring network designed to protect health, keep fisheries safe and track environmental effects of emissions reductions.

The bill would create a database for environmental mercury data.