Look for mercury in goods and products

Mercury can be found in any number of technical components and products, which in turn can be found in various types of industrial and home environments. Here are a number of useful hints as to where and how you can look for mercury and how you should handle such products when you come across them.

Which products can contain mercury?

The fact that we still use mercury is because most products containing mercury have a long life, sometimes more than 40 years. Mercury’s conductivity, high density and linear expansion with heat has been utilised in many areas, for example in electrical switches, pressure gauges and thermometers.

The list of technical components that could contain mercury is therefore long. Here are some examples:

• Barometers and manometers
  
• Batteries
  
• Flow meters
  
• Strip lights and other light sources
  
• Sender level switches
  
• Pressure switches
  
• Circuit breakers
  
• Thermometers
  
• Thermostats
  
• Time switches/landing switches
  
• Volumeters

The above mentioned components can in turn be found in many different types of instruments, apparatus and other products, for example

• Battery chargers
• Cars (automatic lights and collision sensors)
• Central clocks and time clocks
• Dishwashers (electrical switches)
• Freezers (automatic lights)
• Lifts for disabled
• Measuring and control instruments
• Float switches and level meters
• Door bells ("ding-dong")
• Skylifts (levelling)
• Bedside lamps with automatic lights, e.g. for hospitals
• Signal alarms
• Transformers (gas-operated relays)

Note that mercury can be enclosed and hidden from the eye even after removing covers and casings on products containing the substance, for example in thermometers and thermostats with capillary tubes.

In which environments can mercury be found?

Distributions boxes and electric installations
Mercury is often found in relays located in distribution boxes in buildings, e.g. for regulating stair lights.

Boiler rooms
Small boiler rooms often contain tube thermometers and other thermometers. Oil level gauges for remote measurements are also common.

District heating plants and furnace rooms
Large housing estates and industrial areas often have a central heating plant with flue-gas meters, tube thermometers, thermostats, pressure switches, oil level gauges, flow meters, etc.

Ventilation equipment
Here you can find manometers, thermostats, thermometers, relays, etc. containing mercury.

Sumps and tanks
In low-lying areas in buildings, for example, you may find pumping equipment regulating the water level with sender level switches that can contain mercury. Tanks and cisterns can also have switches containing mercury.

Industrial environments
Within industry there are all possible types of mercury products installed in distribution boxes, electrical surrounding equipment, boiler rooms, sumps, machinery, measuring instruments, etc.

Machinery and equipment
A number of types of machinery and equipment can contain mercury, e.g. level indicators in skylifts and mobile ladders, industrial welding equipment, forestry machinery, gas-operated relays in transformers, manufacturing machinery, etc.

Laboratories
In laboratories and schools mercury has been used as a reagent for different analyses, as well as in thermometers and other measuring instruments.

Drains and old waste pipes
In dental surgeries and other premises where mercury is used, amalgam and metallic mercury can have collected in waste pipes, leaching mercury into the sewerage.

Electronics
Printed circuit cards in electrical components in machinery and equipment can contain mercury. Companies specialising in dismantling electronic equipment will handle this in an environmentally safe way.

Checklist: Dispose of mercury in a safe way!

Property owners, companies, other enterprise and households have a responsibility to help locate the "hidden mercury stores" and to dispose of them in a safe way to avoid spreading mercury environment. The checklist below can be used as an aid for inventory and disposal of mercury in an environmentally sound way.

According to the "rules of consideration" in Swedish legislation, persons carrying out an operation must avoid the use of hazardous chemicals that can damage people’s health and the environment. Therefore, alternatives to products containing mercury should be used wherever possible. The rules require knowledge among personnel about substances that are handled.

Ensure that handling follows routines which met the requirements for good a working environment and natural environment, all the way from inventory to disposal.

1. Take stock
Find out where there are components that may contain mercury. Looking for mercury contained in products is practical work, often requiring some form of electrical knowledge. In some environments, only authorised persons are admitted. The inventory often requires dismantling of lids and casings in order to find the mercury. Also check stockrooms and old stores.

2. Dismantle and replace
Remove all mercury-added products that can be dispensed with. Be careful as not to break the products when dismantling. All components that are or have been in contact with mercury are hazardous waste.

Dismantled components should be stored safely. One litre of mercury weighs around 13.6 kg, so even small amounts can pose a strain on receptacles and other containers. If in doubt, contact someone with professional experience, e.g. your local refuse disposal.

3. Label and document
If a mercury-containing product in use cannot be replaced: Label the product clearly so that it is obvious that it contains mercury. Make a list over all products containing mercury and where they are found, so that they do not disappear by mistake or through ignorance when being replaced or in case of rebuilding or demolition. Keep the list safe with the person responsible for the operation.

4. Collect and hand in
Metallic mercury and mercury-containing products that are being disposed with constitute hazardous waste and should be separated from other waste. Handle mercury waste carefully, so that mercury from broken thermometers, glass phials, etc. does not leak out. Label the wrapping carefully as to its contents so that it is not lost or mixed up with other waste.

Prohibited use of certain products containing mercury

The Ordinance on Prohibition in Connection with Handling, Importation and Exportation of Chemical Products Etc. (Certain Cases), §§9-11 (SFS 1998:944) prohibits the manufacturing and sale of the following mercury-containing measuring and control instruments, electrical goods and components:

• Clinical thermometers and other thermometers containing mercury.
• Float switches, pressure switches, thermostats, relays, electrical contact breakers and contacts for continuous current transmission.
• Measuring instruments other than above.

Products of this kind taken into use before 1 January 1995 that have been in use since then are exempt from the ban. However, it is not permitted to reinstall components that have been taken out of operation. There is therefore no need to keep mercury-containing components and equipment in stock.

According to the same Ordinance (§8), Sweden introduced a prohibition on the export of mercury on 1 July 1997.

• Mercury and mercury-containing chemical compounds and preparations may not be commercially exported.

Contact: Kristina von Rein     Date: 05-04-2001

Swedish Environmental Protection Agency