Lawmakers from both major parties have introduced legislation in the New York Assembly and New York State Senate that would ban thermometers, fluorescent lights and other products that contain mercury, in order to cut the amount of it entering sewers, landfills and incinerators.
If it is passed and signed by the governor, the bill would give New York State one of the most stringent laws in the country regulating mercury, which is toxic, in products including dental fillings, light bulbs and industrial gauges, the bill's sponsors said.
Mercury is the most insidious, dangerous and pervasive poison that still remains largely unregulated.
Mercury, a metallic chemical that is liquid at ordinary temperatures, has been linked to several cognitive and developmental ailments in the brain, spinal cord, kidneys, liver and lungs. It is especially damaging to young children and to fetuses. After mercury is vaporized in incinerators or dumped in sewage-treatment plants, it often gathers in bodies of water, where fish ingest it. People can be poisoned when they eat fish contaminated with mercury.
The bill would require manufacturers of products that contain mercury to label them and to eliminate the use of mercury in such products beginning in 2004. It would also require manufacturers to build systems for collecting and recycling their products.
Mercury is used in thermostats, gauges, some light bulbs, light switches, batteries for hearing aids and watches, and even some toys. The measure would also make it illegal for anyone to dispose of these products in landfills unless the mercury was removed.
Perhaps the most pervasive use of mercury is in the amalgam of metals used in most dental fillings.
The proposed legislation would require dentists to stop flushing old fillings down the drain, to keep track of the amalgam they use and to inform patients in writing when they put in fillings containing mercury.
Even the sponsors acknowledge, though, that the proposed legislation does not address the biggest source of mercury pollution.
About 30 percent of the mercury that ends up in bodies of water comes from emissions from coal-burning power plants, according to a 1995 study.
Over the last five years, the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Department of Environmental Conservation have begun regulating the mercury sent into the air by municipal garbage and medical incinerators, but so far power plants have not been subject to those restrictions.
Manufacturers of batteries, light bulbs and thermostats argue that some of the measures would be counterproductive. Banning fluorescent lights, for instance, which manufacturers say cannot be made without mercury, would mean using incandescent bulbs, which consume more electricity.
New York Times February 7, 2001
Mercury is one of the most dangerous poisons in our environment. It is absolutely terrific to find another state restricting mercury pollution. The legislation is modeled on a law Vermont passed in 1998. Similar measures are being considered in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Oregon, Maryland, New Jersey, Nebraska and Connecticut.
Even if all of these bills pass, most of us will not be in states that limit mercury pollution. The bill does nothing to address the mercury that has seeped into every waterway in the world and contaminates nearly every fish you can eat.
It also won't address the huge amount of mercury spewed into the atmosphere by power plants.
An amazing fact stated in this article is that dentists are currently allowed to flush mercury-containing amalgams down the drain. That is completely crazy.
One of the things that you can do to limit your absorption of mercury is to regularly take chlorella.
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