Legacy Mercury Products

Interesting article about mercury in old medical equipment:

http://www.newmoa.org/prevention/mercury/projects/legacy/healthcare.cfm

EPA Releases Mercury Documents

EPA Encourages the Use of Mercury-Free Alternatives. EPA has posted a Risk Based Prioritization (RPB) document for mercury (PDF) (7 pp., 67KB, about PDF) under EPA’s Chemical Assessment and Management Program (ChAMP). This preliminary assessment describes uses of elemental mercury in a number of products and concludes that switches, relays, button cell batteries, non-fever thermometers, and measuring devices such as thermostats do not have to contain mercury. Based on this assessment, EPA determined that mercury in these products poses a “high priority, special concern.” The Agency plans to take prompt regulatory and voluntary action to encourage the use of mercury-free alternatives and reduce the use of mercury in products.

• November 2008: EPA has also developed a searchable database of information from various sources to help identify consumer and commercial products that contain mercury and their possible non-mercury alternatives. EPA encourages people to use non-mercury alternatives whenever possible as an important way to prevent exposure to mercury, including exposure due to breakage.

http://www.epa.gov/hg

Broken CFL's and use of nanomaterial sorbents

Wondering how to effectively capture mercury vapor for broken compact fluorescent lamps (CFL's)? If you said yes, you are in the same group as Natalie Johnson at the Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP) laboratory of Robert Hurt, Ph.D. (director of the Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation at Brown University). Natalie is the lead author on a new study reporting the lab’s latest findings, titled “Mercury Vapor Release from Broken Compact Fluorescent Lamps and In Situ Capture by New Nanomaterial Sorbents” (in press, Environmental Science and Technology).

You can read a write-up of their study in the July 2008 edition of the NIEHS Environmental Factor. Among their findings: a few of the common sorbents, such as powdered sulfur or zinc, require greater than 10 kilograms to treat vapor release for a single CFL, while small quantities of other sorbents (for instance, nano-silver and sulfur-impregnated activated carbon forms) require less than 1 gram of sorbent to capture the vapor.

NRB Approves Major Mercury Reduction Rule

NEWS RELEASE
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
101 S Webster, P.O. Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707
Phone: (608) 266-6790 TDD: 711
dnr.wi.gov www.wisconsin.gov
.
DATE: June 25, 2008
CONTACT: Matt Frank, DNR Secretary, (608) 266-2252
Al Shea, Administrator Air and Waste Division, (608) 266-5896
SUBJECT: Natural Resources Board approves major mercury reduction rule.
Rule now goes to legislature
MADISON – The state Natural Resources Board today approved a mercury reduction rule that will accomplish Governor Doyle’s goal to reduce the amount of mercury released to the environment by 90 percent. (More.....)