Mercury in Your Home

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Mercury in Your Home
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Mercury in Your Home

• Thermostats
• Dental amalgams
• Light switches
• Thermometers

• Fluorescent lights
• Batteries
• Appliance switches
• Toys

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Knowing which products contain mercury and
handling them properly will limit the risk of
mercury exposure.
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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

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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

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Lighting Products Containing Mercury

• Dispose of mercury-containing bulbs
• recycling site
• Mercury-containing bulb recyclers are identified
  at the following website

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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

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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

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Mercury Thermostat

• Mercury-containing tilt switches
• more than 40 years
• Many older thermostats and some current ones use
  switches containing mercury.
• Michigan band

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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

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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

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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

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Other Items with Mercury

• Paint
• latex paint made before 1990
• Microwave ovens
• Bulbs-older ovens
• Disinfectants
• Pesticides
• before 1990

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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