Toxic metals in schools
Reduce your family's exposure

Getting Mercury Off School Grounds

Reducing risks of mercury exposure in schools pretty much boils down to reducing the amount of mercury from school settings (or eliminating it, if possible).

Some school safety experts have recommend the removal of all mercury and mercury-containing compounds from schools. Given the possibility that students and staff will be exposed, along with the high cost of disposing of mercury, many people just don’t want to deal with mercury at all.

And the fact is, that for all current applications, there are safer alternatives to mercury.

Alcohol thermometers are adequate in most situation, for example. Also, temperature probes are available which give nearly the same precision and accuracy as precision mercury thermometers.

There are also barometric pressure probes that provide reasonable accuracy for most applications. And barometers are a good example of why mercury-containing products should be minimized or eliminated. A typical barometer contains one pound of mercury and poses a significant risk for spills. At one school, when a barometer was vandalized, it cost the district  $7,000 to clean up.

The lamps in the gymnasium and parking lot tend to be high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps, and such lamps contain mercury. Fluorescent and neon lamps also have some mercury. However, the amount is very small and is likely offset by the side benefits of fluorescent lamps’ greater energy efficiency (using less energy reduces the amount of mercury discharged by power plants). But even there, improvements might be possible. In particular, if the fluorescent lamps are older models, they can probably be replaced with newer ones that use less mercury.

Here are some other example of areas of schools that might pose mercury risks, and alternatives to the mercury-containing items:

The School in General

All around many school campuses, you can find mercury-containing devices, including thermostats, thermometers, barometers and mercury switches. Readily available and cost-effective alternatives are available for all of these. One word of caution, though: Many electronic and digital alternatives use mercury-containing batteries. If so, the school should make sure to choose devices in which the existing batteries can be replaced with mercury-free batteries.

Older paints and pesticides used by groundskeepers and custodial staff may contain mercury. These should be disposed of as hazardous waste and be replaced with paints and pesticides produced after the mid-1990s, which do not contain mercury.

Science Classes and Labs

More so than any other classrooms on campus, science classrooms and school laboratories have a lot of mercury in them, and not just elemental mercury in vials or jars. Such rooms often contain a plethora of thermometers, barometers, air pressure gauges, other mercury-containing devices and mercury compounds.

Mercury-free thermometers are available, including red alcohol and digital thermometers. If mercury is used in experiments, it may be possible to use other chemicals to illustrate the same chemistry principles. In addition, experiments can be scaled down in size to reduce the amount or mercury needed.

If mercury must be used as part of the curriculum, make sure the school has a mercury spill kit available, with faculty and staff trained in its use.

Nurse's Office

Because of thermometers and blood pressure measuring devices, there is a possibility that this area may contain even more mercury than the science classrooms and labs. Taken all together, blood pressure gauges and other mercury-containing devices in a nurse’s office may contain several pounds of mercury. 

Aneroid blood pressure devices and digital thermometers are available as alternatives, and they don’t sacrifice accuracy for safety in any way.