Ohio Bans Mercury Button Cell Batteries

Environmental Resource Center ^ | 11/15/10

[EBH]

Ohio Bans Mercury Button Cell Batteries

On January 1, 2011, mercury-added novelties that contain mercury button cell batteries will be banned from sale or distribution in Ohio.

Unless the mercury was in a button cell battery, mercury-added novelty items have been banned for sale or distribution in Ohio since October 6, 2007. A mercury-added novelty item is defined in Ohio Revised Code § 3734.61 as a product in which mercury is present and that is intended mainly for personal or household enjoyment or adornment. Novelty items covered by the rule include, but are not limited to: products intended for use as practical jokes, figurines, adornments, toys, games, cards, ornaments, yard statues and figures, candles, jewelry, holiday decorations, footwear, other items of apparel; or similar products. Mercury-added novelties with a fluorescent light bulb, such as hand-held video game consoles or cell phones, are not included in the rule.

You can read more about Ohio’s mercury ban rule in the Ohio School and Consumer Mercury Product Bans guidance document.

[JohnG45]

... total mercury emissions to the environment will decrease, since coal-fired plants release so much.

Where we have large population centers in this country we DO NOT have coal-fired plants supplying power. So, with the mandated CFL's, we will have large population centers releasing mercury into the environment when heretofore (with incandescents) this was not a problem.

Exactly what are you defending here?

[Gondring]

Where we have large population centers in this country we DO NOT have coal-fired plants supplying power.

LOL!

[Pravious]

“Something’s going on here and I don’t like it one bit.

Our leaders are idiots. Get rid of them. “

We have a winner! :-)

[JohnG45]

Where we have large population centers in this country we DO NOT have coal-fired plants supplying power.

LOL!

Intelligent comment, but you failed to answer my question.

[Jeff Chandler]

How about rectal thermometers? Old style oral thermometers?

Do you know how you can tell the difference? The taste.

[Calvin Locke]

I remember the benzene-in-the-Perrier.

Probably on the export batches to the US.

(Yes, it was improper cleaning when cleaning the equipment. Try to do the right thing...)

[Joe Bfstplk]

>>When I was a kid, I’d take the mercury and play with it.......These people are idiots......

We rubbed coins with mercury and made them glisten for a while...

[algernonpj]

Then, like good conservatives, we should push for tighter enforcement.

...and thereby face wrath of many FReepers who aren't as conservative as they claim when it comes to increasing their costs or stepping on their "right" to spread toxins to public property and that of their neighbors

You bring up a very interesting point. That "right" is the dark side of human nature or what Bastiat in 'The Law' refers to as "common tendency of mankind, when they can, to live and prosper at the expense of others".

In that they deny the whole of human nature, uber-libertarians resemble leftists. The solutions are just different.

Our founding fathers were keenly aware of the dark side of human nature and attempted to balance reigning it in with allowing maximum freedom for the individual.

No easy task at at point in time where leftists have effectively redefined words such a 'justice', 'equal rights', 'civil rights' ...

[Las Vegas Dave]

Ohio Pings!

To be added to the Ohio Ping List, please freepmail (works best),
LasVegasDave.

[BenKenobi]

Ugh, don’t get me started on those! Quackery!

[Pontiac]

The mercury in batteries can't get out unles you deliberately cut the metal container.

The issue with the battery is that it will most likely end up in a land fill where the case will corrode and the mercury will end up in the water table.

As for the novelty items they usually end up in land fills before the battery is dead. This is an especially bad thing because if these batteries are immersed in water they will short out and can explode. Then the mercury instead of just leaking out it enters all at once.

[GingisK]

...mercury will end up in the water table...

How many people believe that mercury is a manmade substance? It all came from the ground originally. It merly returns to whence it came, and in much lower concentrations than when harvested. It hangs out in lead deposits. Oh yeah, lead also comes from the ground.

[Pontiac]

It all came from the ground originally. It merly returns to whence it came, and in much lower concentrations than when harvested.

By putting it in a land fill you are hardly returning it to the ground it came out of.

[Gondring]

I defy you to find elemental mercury or mercuric oxide (the compound in batteries) naturally sitting out in nature in any quantity. Montroydite is very rare.

Besides, your claim is specious. Ricin comes from castor beans, but extracting it, concentrating it, and exposing the public to it isn't being sociable.

It's like how people use a similar ridiculous argument with lead...oh, wait.

[GingisK]

By putting it in a land fill you are hardly returning it to the ground it came out of.

Surely not the same lat&long, but same planet.

[GingisK]

...similar ridiculous argument with lead...

One can't eat galina.

The landfill hype is just hype. If we're so worried about mercury, why do we mandate it in light bulbs? Tungsten bulbs are completely safe. Mercury is more dangerous than lead. Don't let babies eat houses.

[GWMcClintock]

DMSO is still used in veterinary medicine as a topical anti-inflammatory. I have used it both on horses and on dogs, and it’s use for that particular problem is really remarkable.

[Blueflag]

Agreed. Like many therapeutics, it is open to abuse and misuse.

I just have to believe I inadvertently transported a lot of unknowns through my dermis via casual handling of DMSO. (in the late 60s, early 70s)

Shame on me.