Mercury in Your Home
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Transcript of Mercury in Your Home
Mercury in Your Home
Mercury in Your Home
• Thermostats• Dental amalgams• Light switches• Thermometers
• Fluorescent lights• Batteries• Appliance switches• Toys
Knowing which products contain mercury and
handling them properly will limit the risk of mercury
exposure.
Lighting Products Containing Mercury
• Fluorescent bulbs– environmentally friendly
• energy-efficient• last longer
– kitchen, workshop, garage, and other home lighting
• Metal halide bulbs– Street lights, security, and floodlights
Lighting Products Containing Mercury
• High-pressure sodium bulbs– street, security, and floodlights
• Neon bulbs used in novelty– lounge, and retail store lighting.
• Automotive headlamps – characteristic blue tint when lit
Lighting Products Containing Mercury
• Dispose of mercury-containing bulbs– recycling site
• Mercury-containing bulb recyclers are identified at the following website:
Mercury in Medical Supply
• Thermometers– silver liquid in thermometers – different-colored liquid (usually red)
• contain alcohol, not mercury
• Blood pressure cuffs– different-colored liquid (usually red)
• contain alcohol, not mercury
Mercury Thermometer
• Rite-Aid– stop selling mercury thermometers
• Michigan banned sales of mercury thermometers, thermostat, blood pressure devices and medical devices.– 1997– For more information, visit
www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3307_29693_4175-160230--,00.html
Mercury Thermostat
• Mercury-containing tilt switches– more than 40 years
• Many older thermostats and some current ones use switches containing mercury.
• Michigan band
Appliance Switches
• Gas-fired appliances– stoves, ovens, water heaters, clothes
dryers, furnaces, and space heaters
• Switches – Clothing irons, top loading freezers, and
washing machines may use switches containing mercury
Toys Containing Mercury
• Barometers– weather instrument
• Old chemistry sets and mercury mazes– Children's’ chemistry sets were once
sold with liquid mercury– the mercury maze, contains a drop of
mercury that is moved through the maze
Other Items with Mercury
• Batteries– contain mercuric oxide– All shapes and sizes– commonly used in calculators, cameras,
hearing aids, and watches
• Lighted athletic shoes– Pre-1997 tennis shoes with light-up
soles contain mercury
Other Items with Mercury
• Paint– latex paint made
before 1990
• Microwave ovens– Bulbs-older ovens
• Disinfectants• Pesticides
– before 1990
Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facilities
• For more information, please visit – www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-
3585_4130-115394--,00.html– www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-
3307_29693_4175-11761--,00.html– www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-
3307_29693_4175-160230--,00.html