The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced that its six regional offices collected 1,451 pounds of mercury in 2005 through a variety of collection strategies aimed at reducing the dangers posed by the neurotoxin to people and wildlife.
Since 1997, DEP’s six regional offices have collected almost 17,000 pounds of elemental mercury from schools and homes. Liquid elemental mercury is most commonly found in homes in thermometers, thermostats and barometers. At schools, elemental mercury may be found in containers in laboratories and thermometers and blood-pressure gauges in nurses’ offices.
Several steps that Pennsylvania has taken to reduce mercury exposure include developing state-specific regulations to control mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania, formally challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s final mercury emissions reduction rule for new and existing coal-fired power plants, forming a partnership with Pennsylvania dentists to review voluntary best-management practices for mercury-bearing amalgam wastes and collect obsolete supplies of elemental mercury, and creating the Pennsylvania Mercury Automobile Switch Removal Program, which encourages the recycling of mercury from scrap automobiles.