Mercury Bill Passes Out of US Senate Committee; Applauded by Groups Legislation Would Ban Mercury Thermometers, Permanently Manage Surplus Mercury

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Mercury Bill Passes Out of US Senate Committee; Applauded by Groups

Legislation Would Ban Mercury Thermometers, Permanently Manage Surplus Mercury

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Mercury Bill Passes Out of US Senate Committee; Applauded by Groups

Legislation Would Ban Mercury Thermometers, Permanently Manage Surplus Mercury

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, Apr. 9 -/E-Wire/-- Today, environmentalists applauded U.S. Senators Susan Collins and James Jeffords for their comprehensive legislation that would begin to eliminate and permanently manage surplus mercury. The bill was passed unanimously today out of the Committee on Environment and Public Works. The bill would ban the sale of mercury fever thermometers, fund a thermometer exchange program to provide consumers with mercury-free alternatives and ensure that the mercury collected would be taken out of circulation for good.

"We applaud Senator Collins for promoting safe alternatives to highly toxic mercury products," said Brownie Carson, Executive Director for Natural Resources Council of Maine. "Preventing mercury pollution means healthier kids and wildlife," he said. "We need to phase out mercury products because they can> '> t be used without poisoning the environment, " he stated. The bill would also establish a federal task force to identify ways to permanently store mercury leftover from industrial production and military stockpiles and to reduce the mining, use and release of mercury on a global basis. This task force would deal with mercury waste, including that from the now-defunct HoltraChem plant in Orrington, Maine. The task force would receive input from business and environmental groups and make recommendations for further Congressional action within one year.

"We applaud Senators Jeffords and Collins continuing leadership to reduce mercury pollution and urge the Congress to pass this critical legislation, " said Michael Bender, Director of the Mercury Policy Project. "The 50 states' environmental commissioners association, ECOS, support the permanently storage of surplus mercury as do numerous health, consumer and environmental groups."

Senate Bill 661, The Mercury Retirement Act of 2003. is the same bill that passed unanimously in the US Senate June of last year. It' s expected that the bill will pass through the US Senate successfully again.

Approximately 17 tons of mercury in thermometers are disposed of each year in solid waste in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency. As awareness of the dangers of mercury grow, ten states, including the States of Maine and New Hampshire, and 30 cities, like Portland, Boston and San Francisco, have banned the sales of mercury thermometers. Many local communities are organizing exchange programs for consumers to obtain mercury-free digital thermometers when they trade in mercury thermometers.

The past mercury saga of the closed HoltraChem plant in Orrington, Maine illustrates the need for federal policy making on permanent mercury storage and export. Originally HoltraChem sold its 260,000 pounds of leftover mercury to a dealer who began to ship it to India where environmental controls are less stringent. International protests halted the export of the shipment and exposed the unjust toxic trade in mercury to developing countries.

As a result of an agreement that the Natural Resources Council and Maine People's Alliance helped forge, the waste mercury is now being safely stored out of state for at least the next four years until a permanent storage site can be found. Ten other chemical plants like HoltraChem, which make chlorine, will gradually close over the next several years as the obsolete mercury technology is phased out. The closure of these plants will free up another 5 million pounds of mercury. The U.S. Department of Defense also stockpiles nearly 10 million pounds of mercury leftover from Cold War era weapons production. They halted sales of this mercury in 1994 in response to global environmental concerns.

"We took an important step toward reducing mercury pollution in Maine, the U.S., and the world when an agreement was reached last September to store HoltraChem's remaining 84 tons of mercury," declared John Dieffenbacher-Krall, co-director, Maine People 's Alliance. "We are ready to work with Senator Collins, the U.S. House of Representatives, and President Bush to establish a federal policy to ensure the long-term safe retirement of the HoltraChem mercury and eventually all of this deadly toxin."

Mercury uses in products and industrial emissions have contributed to the three-to-five fold increase in atmospheric deposition over the past century. Over the past several years, mercury use in the United States and other developed countries has steadily declined as awareness of this dangerous toxin grows. In developing countries, however, mercury is still used widely in the manufacture of consumer products, like thermometers, in gold mining and in chlorine production where regulations are often lax.

The report by the National Academy of Sciences report, Toxicological Effects of Mercury, estimates that over 60,000 U.S. children are born each year at risk for adverse neurodevelopmental effects due to maternal exposure to methylmercury through consumption of contaminated fish. The growing brains of babies are extremely sensitive to mercury> '> s toxic effects. Mercury exposure hurts the ability of children to pay attention, remember, talk, draw, run and play. This may increase the number of children who struggle to keep up in school and who might require remedial classes or special education.

MERCURY POLICY PROJECT

Michael Bender, MPP,

Brownie Carson, NRCM

(207) 622-3101 ext. 207

John Dieffenbacher-Krall, MPA,

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