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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
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