Posted on 09/10/2002 9:56:27 AM PDT by Korth
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate voted to ban the sale of mercury fever thermometers in order to curb a source of environmental contamination.
On a voice vote and without dissent, the Senate sent The Mercury Reduction and Disposal Act to the U.S. House of Representatives for concurrence.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates medical mercury thermometers contribute about 17 tons of mercury to solid waste per year, said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican and chief sponsor of the measure.
The bill calls for a nationwide ban on the sale of such thermometers as well as a grant program to help consumers exchange them for digital ones or other alternatives.
"Mercury fever thermometers are very easily broken. When this happens, the improper disposal of the mercury can have severe environmental and physical consequences," Collins said.
"One mercury thermometer contains about one gram of mercury," said Collins, "enough mercury to contaminate all the fish in a 20-acre (8 hectare) lake."
Her bill would also create an interagency task force, headed by the EPA, to address the problem of the global circulation of mercury and ways to reduce the mercury threat.
At 1 gram/thermometer, that works out to 15,422,000 broken thermometers/year. That assumes, of course, that all the mercury from every broken thermometer winds up in landfill. Something doesn't seem quite right here...
What Ms. Collins meant to say was "by forcing the replacement of all mercury thermometers in homes and hospitals and doctor's offices with digital ones, at $10 per digital thermometer, the company that provides my campaign contributions stands to make $15,422,000 . (/sarcasm)
Mrs. Collins along with most of the rest of the arrogant overbearing women in the congress and in the administration would accomplish more worthwhile things if they would just go home, clean the commode, mow the lawn and submit themselves unto their own husbands instead of being the self appointed nannies for the nation.
We have enough trouble with the lying stealing men in the congress and the administration!
Who needs these airheads disrupting the national life with their frivolously silly ideas?
Not that I'm disagreeing, but Vermont went through this nonsense last year. I remember in a statistics class I
took for my MBA. Paper companies in Maine were taxed on the mercury in their discharge because it speeded up the
"natural" accumulation of mercury in that was already being carried by the rivers downstream.
Similarly effects were notice with wood-fired generator plants. The pine needles contain cadmium leeched from the soil.
All mercury thermometers were withdrawn from the market in 1968....
...they were contaminated with
tuna
I tend to agree although there are probably more important things for our legislators to be focusing on right now.
A few years ago I wondered why fish in San Francisco Bay have such a high mercury content and began researching an article about it. It turns out they're being contaminated by mercury left in streams as a result of the 1849 gold rush! Mercury is used to amalgamate flakes of gold mixed with magnetite after panning. Only the gold is attracted by the mercury and later the mercury is 'retorted' off with heat, leaving only gold. There are still huge amounts of free mercury in the beds of streams running off the Sierra into the Sacramento.
As you say, once the mercury is underwater and away from free oxygen, bacteria absorb it and pass it up through the food chain. Result: if you catch fish in S.F. Bay be careful about how many you eat!
Mercury, like all heavy metals, is toxic stuff. It's pretty certain the Roman aristocracy went downhill mentally from the combination of inbreeding and the use of lead plumbing and dinnerware. A huge source of dangerous environmental mercury is from discarded flashlight batteries. Naturally Congress won't do anything about that because it would be terribly unpopular.
...
Except for the fact that most of the metallic mecury would then react and turn into methyl mercury, Mr. Chemistry Ph.D.
Here's my source in case you still think me full of it.
Hey, they could have federalized temperature-taking!
-PJ
There are 453.592 grams per pound.
It is traditional to round UP to 454 grams.
Just being picky. ;^)
I wouldn't be surprised if UCANSEE2 in #85 nailed it on the head.
Interestingly, I got a call today from a colleague about a situation where a competitor of my employer's might be about to pull a similar stunt -- to get his congressman involved in a way where their products would be preferred (for government purchase) over ours. Heh. My congresswoman already knows me personally.
. A huge source of dangerous environmental mercury is from discarded flashlight batteries. Naturally Congress won't do anything about that because it would be terribly unpopular.
EPA banned ASBESTOS in SCHOOLS and forced them to replace it all at huge costs.
This was because it was 'possible' that the friable asbestos could become jarred loose from basketballs hitting it.
When I asked officials at EPA why then did they not do anything about ASBESTOS BRAKE PADS AND LININGS which are on every auto and grind the asbestos into very fine particles which we all breathe in every day, I got the same answer, more or less. It would be very unpopular. It would cost individuals to replace them, and the CAR MFGTRS would SH*T a BRICK!
Makes sense to me. No complaints here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.