It’s in old thermometers, thermostats, car trunk light switches, some light bulbs and – mixed with other metals – in dental fillings. It gets into the water and contaminates fish, and has been linked to learning disabilities in children and other neurological problems.
Mercury, quite simply, is poison, and for years federal and local officials have been trying to reduce its presence in the environment. In 1998, New England’s governors and eastern Canadian premiers vowed to “virtually eliminate” mercury emissions in the region.
But a new report from Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, a government agencies coalition, shows more than 10,000 pounds of mercury are being released into the air each year in the region. Waste incineration and dental mercury use account for more than one-third of the pollution, the report shows.
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The news comes just as Rhode Island is imposing new restrictions on mercury’s entry into the environment. As of Jan. 1, products containing more than one gram of mercury cannot be sold legally here, and no prducts below the threshold can be sold unless the manufacturer has implemented plans to collect the items when the consumer is finished with them.
Also as of Jan. 1, under another law, automakers must work with salvage yards to safely remove mercury switches from old cars and dispose of them. They have set up a joint program, End of Life Vehicle Solutions, a R.I. Department of Environmental Management official said last week, and have sent educational materials and collection buckets to each facility. Once the buckets are full, the program will pay to ship the mercury to a recycling plant.
The goal for the first year, said Ron Gagnon, chief of technical and customer assistance at the DEM, is to collect 9,000 switches – about 50 percent of the total contained in cars scrapped in the state each year. In 2007 and thereafter, through 2017, 70 percent must be collected.
Each switch contains less than a gram of mercury, but the DEM has estimated that disposal of the switches from Rhode Island vehicles puts at least 40 pounds of mercury into the environment each year. The DEM estimates that 602 pounds of mercury are contained in all the cars registered in the state. Foreign carmakers stopped using mercury switches in the mid-1990s, but North American cars didn’t fully stop installing them until 2003.
Under the new law, automakers must pay at least $3 per switch to the scrap yards and $1 to the DEM. Gagnon said the department is trying to get them to do “a little bit more” to train salvagers.
Then there’s dental mercury – a big contributor to mercury pollution, officials and environmental advocates say. Mercury makes up about half the weight in dental amalgam used to fill cavities, and it ends up both in the wastewater and in the trash.
“Rhode Island is literally allowing mercury pollution to be washed down the drain from dental offices across the state,” said Sheila Dormody, Rhode Island director of Clean Water Action, which issued a news release highlighting the new Northeast report and calling for measures to reduce mercury emissions.
But not all Rhode Island dentists are contributing to the problem, Dormody noted. Since 2004, the Narragansett Bay Commission, which serves 70 percent of sewer system customers in the state, including Providence and much of East Providence, has required dental practices to install amalgam separators in their plumbing systems, with fine screens and ion transfer mechanisms to capture even tiny particles of the material.
The devices cost about $600, more for larger practices, and annual filter replacements cost about another $500, according to Dr. Roger M. Turkel, a North Kingstown dentist and chairman of the Rhode Island Dental Association’s committee on wastewater management.
Turkel’s practice has a septic system, but he installed an amalgam separator on his own to prevent groundwater contamination that could detract from the value of his property. The association has endorsed the use of the devices in all practices, he said, because “we’re a coastal community, and we have a very valuable resource in the Bay.”
The results were striking: At the end of 2004, the Narragansett Bay Commission logged an 18-percent reduction in mercury levels at Fields Point, its Providence facility, and a 23-percent drop at Bucklin Point, in East Providence, said pre-treatment manager Kerry M. Britt.
“We had major reductions … that can be directly attributed to the program,” she said. The commission went on to give the Dental Association an environmental merit award.
Only about half of Rhode Island’s dentists are served by the commission, however, Dormody said, so Clean Water Action wants the DEM to require the entire profession to do the same. Connecticut and Maine have taken such action, she said, while Vermont passed a law last year.
Asked for his view, Turkel replied: “I think dentists realize that it is in their interest to install amalgam separators,” but he added that “sometimes you need that little push by regulators” to hasten the process.
The Northeast States report also shows municipal waste incinerators are responsible for more than 20 percent of the region’s mercury air emissions, and linked those emissions to the disposal of items such as thermometers. Dormody said Rhode Island is doing well on that front by phasing out mercury products – something Massachusetts has yet to do – but it needs to ensure that old items are properly disposed of. The state Department of Health periodically runs thermometer collections, for example, and that’s helpful, she said.
