Common Household Items with Mercury

Mercury, also called quicksilver, is a silver-whitish poisonous metallic element found in not only thermometers, but in many of our household items. When mercury is at room temperature it is liquid. When items with mercury break, mercury doesn't disappear and it can find its way into our environment to cause concern.

Common Household Items that may Contain Mercury

- Children's light-up shoes

- Fluorescent bulbs

- High Intensity Discharge Lamps (HID)

- Barometers

- Fever, candy, meat thermometers

- Thermostats Switches and Relays

- Most autos have some form of a mercury switch

- Thermostat probes that are found in appliances like gas stoves, space heaters, water heaters, and items with pilot lights

- Mercurochrome antiseptics

- Batteries

- Some toys to be aware of like chemistry sets and mazes

- Golf balls, fishing lures

- Some novelty jewelry

- Grandfather pendulums

- Dental Amalgam which is a mixture of mercury, silver and tin used to fill cavities

- Older microwaves that had mercury vapor bulbs. The newer ones do not.

Sometimes the uniqueness of mercury does outweigh the toxicity when we are talking about very low quantities found with mercury in it. Nevertheless, mercury pollution can be a serious concern for our health and the environment.

Mercury affects the nervous and reproductive system, kidneys and liver. I don't know if you ever saw a thermometer break. The liquid mercury turns into solid droplet balls. If these balls are not completely cleaned up, they can vaporize for years. To put it in perspective the dangers of these thermometers if broken - one of these thermometers contain 0.5 grams of mercury which is enough to contaminate the drinking water for about 1 million people for one day.

How to Protect Your Health

- Do not use a vacuum cleaner on a mercury spill because the heat will vaporize the mercury causing you to inhale its fumes.

- Do not intentionally break fluorescent lamps and place them in the trash. Send them to a licensed household hazardous waste facility.

- Do not use mercury in hobbies

Mercury can be found in fish that are found in coastal waters. Some fish that have been known to be contaminated with mercury are:

- Largemouth bass

- King Mackerel 33 - 39 inches

- Shark under 43 inches

- Spotted Sea Trout larger than 20 inches

- Little Tunny

- Cobia

- Greater Amberjack Bluefish

- Crevalle Jack

- Snook

- Red Dram

- Great Barracuda

- Tuan

- Wahoo and more

The best thing a consumer can do is keep reading labels and stay updated with an environmental activist group such as National Resource Defense Council. If you click, "here" you can obtain a quick read of your mercury daily consumption eating fish. The alternative is to have your physician give you a mercury blood test.

Source: Orange County Environmental Protection Division of Florida