Toxic metals in schools
Take Action!

Your Actions Can Reduce Mercury Levels

By getting involved with efforts to reduce mercury use in schools, you can help achieve the following goals: 

• Help educate students, teachers and administrators about the health hazards and environmental effects of mercury.

• Promote the proper management and recycling of mercury and mercury-containing products at schools

• Promote use of alternative products that do not contain mercury.

• Prevent mercury spills and promote proper spill cleanup.

• Encourage schools to take advantage of free mercury recycling programs that may be available to them

• Bring the message home, so that students and their families (not just you but also your neighbors) can evaluate mercury use in their homes and learn about less toxic alternatives

You should educate your schools administrators about mercury risks and safer alternatives so that your children will be able to learn in a more healthy environment. And that is why educating yourself is so important (Sites you can visit for more information are accessible via the “Related Information” link on the left side of this page).

But in addition to passing the word along to others, you can learn how to reduce mercury risks through simple actions in your own home. This not only means eliminating or reducing the use of mercury-containing products, but also promoting other good habits in your home that will indirectly reduce mercury.

One of the best things you can do besides working to eliminate mercury products from your home and schools is to practice energy conservation measures. In addition to the cost benefits and the environmental benefits that most people are already aware of, energy conservation will also reduce mercury levels in our environment. Power plants that have to burn coal, oil or gas for energy production release much of the mercury that gets into our air and water. If they don’t need to produce as much electricity, that means they also won’t be producing as much mercury discharge.

To learn more about energy efficiency in the home, visit that topic in the home-oriented section of our Web site. If you want to get there right away, just click here.