Global mercury ban to hit electronics, plastics, power prices

Re: "Mercury-rich devices like thermometers and blood pressure meters..."

I'm not sure, but I know that when my father's wife was doing her first-aid for the ambulance service, she was sent home with one to practice with. This may have just been because the fancy new one was left in the ambulance.

Re: "Mercury-rich devices like thermometers and blood pressure meters..."

Here in France, mercury sphygmomanometers (to give them their proper name) are no longer available to buy new, but there is, according to the doctors I have spoken to about this, still the possibility of buying one on the second-hand market, i.e. from another doctor.

Curiously, my médécin traitant ("GP") uses an electronic one, while the cardiologist I went to see as a result of persistent slightly high BP uses a mercury meter. Another specialist (long story) used a manually pumped needle-gauge meter.

The choice of which to use seems to be personal, but I've also read that the mercury-column meters give more accurate results, while the electronic ones are easier to use.

Re: Errata

" mercury-filled fluorescents"

Not really a very objective way to describe a tube that (these days) contains generally a few milligrams of mercury. A trace would be more appropriate in common parlance.

That said I agree that phasing mercury out should be considered a good thing but AFAIK the likelihood that such efficient lighting can be produced without mercury seems very low (see http://www.osram.com/osram_com/sustainability/sustainable-products/sustainability-criteria/key-performance-indicators/mercury/why-mercury/index.jsp)

But there is always LEDs

Re: Errata

-Power plants will be required to install new filters/scrubbers.

Nope. Existing plants will be exempt and only new plants not yet in construction (or approved) will have new filtering requirements. At least that has been how it's always been done. Power companies own enough politicians to keep from having to refit older plants.

Re: Fluorescents

The only other UV emitter I know of that's used commercially is deuterium, and AFAIK deuterium arc lamps are almost exclusively used in scientific equipment. One thing that's guaranteed to warrant a bollocking from a lab manager is some fool leaving a UV spectrometer switched on overnight.

Unlikely I'm afraid - most dentists are encouraged to go for the non-mercury , white versions these days.

The fact they're twice the price and have twice the margin of the mercury ones has nothing to do with it, of course.

Re: As a young 'un

In the 2nd Form our physics teacher produced a beaker of mercury to demonstrate a liquid metal that was deceptively heavy and had an upward domed meniscus. He also demonstrated air pressure supporting a column from an open trough. A few stray globules were enthusiastically pursued round the bench top until they could be captured and returned to the bottle. Glass blowing was a technique we learned about the same time. Not sure what we put in our capillary tube thermometers before calibrating them with boiling water and melting ice.

Doing a survey of the house: most lights are now CFL or fluorescent tubes; the outside max/min thermometer is mercury; the doorbell has a mercury switch to make the actuator oscillate.

The lights are easy to dispose of in the reserved section at the Council recycling plant. Doubt if they have special handling for other mercury products - so presumably they end up trashed in the plastics recycling.

Re: but still fine to put it in our teeth yes?

Exactly.

It is not exactly recent news that mercury is deadly.

It may be relatively inert in the amalgam in our teeth, but it still has to be handled by the professionals. I remember a dental nurse telling me that a doc had told her that only exposure to the air would heal up a wound on her foot. She said it was tough to get the doc to understand that she worked with mercury: an open sore and open shoes was an absolute no-way.

Mercury is also not exactly cheap. Could it be that the much greater cost of resin fillings is partly because the UK NHS didn't subsidize them?

Re: CMOS "Button cells"?

Mage say's "Mercury based thermometers and blood pressure are long obsolete."

Not at two GP's I visit or the ward of a Hospital on another visit for blood pressure monitoring. When I asked "why" I was told that it's a cheap, reliable, accurate instrument that does not need power, calibration or significant maintenance.

If you have tried one of the "cheap" home blood pressure monitors you will find it difficult to get 3/4 successive readings even approaching the same numbers.

Re: CFL's

"require extensive professional cleanup if broken "

Rubbish

http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.html

From the EPA site.

Before Cleanup

Have people and pets leave the room.

Air out the room for 5-10 minutes by opening a window or door to the outdoor environment.

Shut off the central forced air heating/air-conditioning system, if you have one.

Collect materials needed to clean up broken bulb:

stiff paper or cardboard;

sticky tape;

damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes (for hard surfaces); and

a glass jar with a metal lid or a sealable plastic bag.

During Cleanup

DO NOT VACUUM. Vacuuming is not recommended unless broken glass remains after all other cleanup steps have been taken. Vacuuming could spread mercury-containing powder or mercury vapor.

Be thorough in collecting broken glass and visible powder. Scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder. Place the used tape in the glass jar or plastic bag. See the detailed cleanup instructions for more information, and for differences in cleaning up hard surfaces versus carpeting or rugs.

Place cleanup materials in a sealable container.

After Cleanup

Promptly place all bulb debris and cleanup materials, including vacuum cleaner bags, outdoors in a trash container or protected area until materials can be disposed of. Avoid leaving any bulb fragments or cleanup materials indoors.

Next, check with your local government about disposal requirements in your area, because some localities require fluorescent bulbs (broken or unbroken) be taken to a local recycling center. If there is no such requirement in your area, you can dispose of the materials with your household trash.

If practical, continue to air out the room where the bulb was broken and leave the heating/air conditioning system shut off for several hours.

Re: CFL's

dunno about the cleanup. someone left a strip light on the lawn once so i stamped on in. BANG. very satisfying.

Re: Yeah lets ban another element

"but with any poison dose matters "

Indeed it seems to and Bruce Ames who was partly responsible for much of the scare about zero tolerance to some carcinogens changed his mind in later life and published well-reasoned papers about why a threshold amount/concentration was probably more likely.