Mercury in Your Home

Mercury in Your Home

• Thermostats• Dental amalgams• Light switches• Thermometers

• Fluorescent lights• Batteries• Appliance switches• Toys

Knowing which products contain mercury and

handling them properly will limit the risk of mercury

exposure.

Lighting Products Containing Mercury

• Fluorescent bulbs– environmentally friendly

• energy-efficient• last longer

– kitchen, workshop, garage, and other home lighting

• Metal halide bulbs– Street lights, security, and floodlights

Lighting Products Containing Mercury

• High-pressure sodium bulbs– street, security, and floodlights

• Neon bulbs used in novelty– lounge, and retail store lighting.

• Automotive headlamps – characteristic blue tint when lit

Lighting Products Containing Mercury

• Dispose of mercury-containing bulbs– recycling site

• Mercury-containing bulb recyclers are identified at the following website:

Mercury in Medical Supply

• Thermometers– silver liquid in thermometers – different-colored liquid (usually red)

• contain alcohol, not mercury

• Blood pressure cuffs– different-colored liquid (usually red)

• contain alcohol, not mercury

Mercury Thermometer

• Rite-Aid– stop selling mercury thermometers

• Michigan banned sales of mercury thermometers, thermostat, blood pressure devices and medical devices.– 1997– For more information, visit

www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3307_29693_4175-160230--,00.html

Mercury Thermostat

• Mercury-containing tilt switches– more than 40 years

• Many older thermostats and some current ones use switches containing mercury.

• Michigan band

Appliance Switches

• Gas-fired appliances– stoves, ovens, water heaters, clothes

dryers, furnaces, and space heaters

• Switches – Clothing irons, top loading freezers, and

washing machines may use switches containing mercury

Toys Containing Mercury

• Barometers– weather instrument

• Old chemistry sets and mercury mazes– Children's’ chemistry sets were once

sold with liquid mercury– the mercury maze, contains a drop of

mercury that is moved through the maze

Other Items with Mercury

• Batteries– contain mercuric oxide– All shapes and sizes– commonly used in calculators, cameras,

hearing aids, and watches

• Lighted athletic shoes– Pre-1997 tennis shoes with light-up

soles contain mercury

Other Items with Mercury

• Paint– latex paint made

before 1990

• Microwave ovens– Bulbs-older ovens

• Disinfectants• Pesticides

– before 1990

Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facilities

• For more information, please visit – www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-

3585_4130-115394--,00.html– www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-

3307_29693_4175-11761--,00.html– www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-

3307_29693_4175-160230--,00.html