Mercury: environmental regulation

The advent of membrane cells is largely dictated by environmental regulations related to the hazardous nature of mercury effluents (from mercury cell process) and asbestos (used in diaphragm cell technology).37 However, there are several advantages offered by the membrane cell technology as noted below. 

Large-scale mining of mercury in North America ceased around 1990 because of low prices and stringent environmental regulations. In the U.S., mercury is now produced only as a by-product from presently operating... 

Lawrence B (2000) The mercury marketplace sources, demand, price, and the impacts of environmental regulation. Presentation at USEPA s Workshop on mercury in products, processes, waste, and the environment. Baltimore, MD, 22-23 March 2000, as quoted by USA (comm-24-gov)... 

Typical environmentally regulated substances are arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and lead. Presently, there are few products including mercury. Some electronic devices include arsenic or cadmium, and are used in a computer and so on. Lead is used in the battery of a car, and its alloys are used as solders. In addition, it is included in polyvinylchloride (PVC) cables as a stabilizer. The battery has been treated appropriately. The solder was replaced by a lead-free solder after the RoHS directive. However, a lead-free solder includes lead below 1000 (mass) ppm. The quantity of lead in PVC cables has been decreased. The consumption of the environmentally regulated material seems to decrease, but the discarded products may be the products produced before the enactment of the regulations. 

Residual cylinder content should be confirmed and recovered, or disposed of. The method of disposal of residual content will depend on the product and applicable environmental regulations. An appropriate disposal system should be available. Venting should be directed outside the building, away from building air intakes. Residual gas or liquid in all medical cylinders must be vented. Each vented cylinder is evacuated to a minimum vacuum of approximately 25 inches (635 mm) of mercury (Hg). The vacuum valve and each cylinder valve are closed, and the pump is then shut down. 

In the United States, there is concern about mercury levels in fish from some freshwater lakes. Though environmental regulations have reduced the level of lake pollutants, it takes time to see a reduction in the concentration of an accumulated poison. 

Strict environmental regulations continue to affect battery deployment and its disposal. These regulations force the battery industry to consider secondary batteries, which can be used multiple times. Use of secondary batteries will not only eliminate disposal problems but also will yield maximum economy. The author will not describe low-power mercury-based primary batteries, because mercury is considered very harmful to general health and these batteries have been banned. 

Strict environmental regulations and guidelines have a great impact on battery use and its disposal, leading to greater interest in secondary batteries that can be recharged several times before their disposal. Mercury and other toxic materials have been barred from use in batteries because of health reasons and strict disposal guidelines. 

How can the Ecodesign Directive be further developed to handle the RISKCYCLE-topic So far, pollution issues are involved in the context of product evaluation and the derivation of product standards, but rather in the sense of LCA to capture the energy side and the other relevant environmental indicators. The topic of mercury in compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) has made it clear that pollution issues can be quite important in the context of this Directive. However, relevant limits for energy saving lamps were first set by a waste-related regulation, namely the Annex of the WEEE Directive [7]. 

Thirty, twenty - even ten - years ago there was an environmental case for much stricter regulation and control of emissions, discharges and losses of mercury from the... 

In the 1960s, organic residues (e.g. DDT, PCBs, methyl mercury) began to be detected in several species of shellfish, fish and fish-eating birds [1,2]. Since then, assessment of the bioaccumulation of chemicals has been considered decisive for determining the potential hazard and environmental risk it is regulated by various official organisations such as the OECD [3], EPA [4,5] and ASTM [6],... 

---