The Hazards
of Mercury
Mercury
is toxic to the human nervous system. Ingestion through the food chain
or chronic breathing of mercury vapors can cause a range of physical
symptoms, including inability to coordinate body movement, and impairment
of hearing, speech and vision, skin rashes and kidney damage.
Improper
recycling or disposal of lamps can cause toxic mercury to be released
into the environment resulting in neurological damage to unborn children.
According to estimates, 85,000 U.S. women of childbearing age in a
given year have been exposed to elevated methyl mercury levels sufficient
to affect the brain development of their babies. (Reported by the
National Wildlife Federation).
Ever
since the tragic results of mercury poisoning in Minamata Japan in
the 1950's, extensive research has been done in the field of mercury
toxicity in environmental settings. In general, it has been learned
that elemental mercury that is released to the environment can be
deposited into lakes, rivers, and the oceans. Here a biological process
takes place where the mercury is converted into methyl mercury, a
highly toxic organic form of mercury. The methyl mercury is then consumed
by various animals in the food chain where it bioaccumulates. This
bioaccumulation causes very small amounts of mercury in lower animal
forms to become concentrated in larger animals to levels where their
consumption could cause elevated levels of methyl mercury in humans.
Currently
the standard fluorescent lamp contains approximately 20 milligrams
of mercury. Since 1 gram of mercury is enough to contaminate a 2-acre
pond, then it would take only 50 lamps to cause unacceptable contamination.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, estimates that over
800 million lamps are produced each year. Therefore, there is enough
mercury in those lamps to contaminate 20 million acres of water.
The
most common way for mercury to enter aquatic ecosystems is through
vapor deposition. Mercury has a low vapor pressure and consequently
whenever it is heated the liquid metal becomes a vapor air pollutant.
Mercury in a fluorescent lamp is released to the environment anytime
a fluorescent lamp is processed in a municipal waste incinerator.
In addition, improper lamp recycling also causes mercury to be released
to the environment. Most lamp recyclers in the U.S. use a crush and
sieve technology. Using this method, up to 50% of the mercury in the
lamp can become released to the environment (see NEMA studies). The
process involves shaking broken lamp glass to remove mercury. Any
mercury that has bonded to the glass will not shake off. Subsequent
heating of the mercury glass will cause an uncontrolled release of
mercury to the environment. PIPP's process is state of the art in
that we are able to recover 99.9% of the mercury.
Under
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Comprehensive
Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), owners
and operators of facilities disposing of hazardous substances may
be held liable for response cost. Liability under CERCLA is broad,
costly and can be retroactive. All generators may be liable for disposing
of mercury containing lamps in a dumpster or local landfill. Disposal
of mercury waste in an environmentally sound manner will help minimize
the potential for environmental contamination and minimize the potential
for liability.
