Remember how uncomfortable it was putting thermometers under your tongue when you were a child?
Well, that may all become a thing of the past as the European Parliament has backed a draft directive banning mercury in thermometers and in other measuring devices.
Mercury and its compounds are highly toxic to humans, ecosystems and wildlife and its pollution is now understood to be a global problem. High doses of mercury can be fatal, but studies also show that even relatively low doses can have serious adverse neurodevelopment impacts and could cause harmful effects on the cardiovascular, immune and reproductive systems.
Furthermore, mercury also retards microbiological activity in soil and is a priority hazardous substance under the Water Framework Directive. Worse than this, mercury is persistent and can change in the environment into its most toxic form – methyl mercury – which mainly concentrates in food, particularly in the aquatic food chain. Hence, people with a high intake of fish and seafood, especially in the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, are particularly vulnerable. In fact, large numbers among the Mediterranean fishing communities and the Arctic population show bio-indicators of exposure significantly over the accepted safe levels for methyl mercury.
Despite these dangers, and although a good number of mercury compounds are subject to international conventions, mercury is still widely in use and traded freely, especially for gold mining, batteries and the chlor-alkali industry which is presently significant in the EU. As this industry phases out mercury cells, dental amalgam will become the EU’s major mercury use. The EU is the major exporter of mercury with an annual export of around 1,000 tonnes and is home to the main global supplier – Spanish state-owned firm MAYASA – though Spain has stated that mining and production had already been temporarily stopped and does not anticipate that they will restart.
The biggest headache for the EU though remains the consumption of mercury for measuring and control equipment such as thermometers, blood pressure gauges and barometers which currently do not fall under any of the EU legislation. The European Commission in fact estimates that home thermometers alone use up to 25-30 tonnes of the 33 tonnes of mercury used every year in the EU to manufacture measuring and control devices and which end up being land-filled with the potential for slow but long-term leaching.
Acknowledging these dangers and the need to take action, in January 2005 the European Commission issued a Community Strategy Concerning Mercury which focused on reducing mercury emissions, reducing the entry into circulation of mercury in society by cutting supply and demand, resolving the long-term fate of mercury surpluses and societal reservoirs in products still in use or in storage, protecting against mercury exposure, improving understanding of the mercury problem and its solutions and above all supporting and promoting international action on mercury. In June then, the Council of Ministers supported a proposal to ban all exports of mercury by 2011, which proposal was tabled by the Commission in February 2006 to ban the marketing of mercury in new fever and room thermometers, barometers, blood pressure gauges and manometers and sphygmomanometers to reduce the industrial demand of mercury and speed up its substitution.
The proposal seeks to prevent the bulk of the EU’s annual mercury consumption from building up in the environment, but it does not apply to professional medical equipment on arguments that there might not be adequate substitutes. The proposal was obviously welcomed by environmental pressure groups, but at the same time they criticised the fact that it did not apply to measuring and control devices for professional use like room or equipment thermometers despite available alternatives.
And despite that the European Parliament backed the directive in a first reading report restricting the marketing of certain non-electrical measuring devices containing mercury – with the exception of those devices that are more than 50 years old – at the same time it also accepted a tabled amendment by the British Conservatives stating that the restriction of sales on devices containing mercury should not apply to barometers.
British Conservatives argued that although mercury needs to be controlled, banning the traditional household barometer would have been like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut and that allowing the traditional barometer will safeguard many jobs and small businesses in the UK. The European Parliament acknowledged that there still exists a small-scale production of barometers in the EU and that these producers typically use only recycled mercury.
Therefore, a ban on the use of mercury in barometers will lead to an increase in the amount of mercury found in household waste as there will be no producers left to repair any broken instruments. On the other hand though, the amendment also provides that member states will have to put into place appropriate and effective provisions to authorise and control their sales, in order to guarantee that the objectives of the directive are not jeopardised.
The accepted permanent derogation infuriated green NGOs which argued that dozens of tonnes will continue to enter the market and endanger people’s health and the environment. Also, EEB, a federation of 140 environmental organisations is now saying that emissions of mercury from Europe’s chlor-alkali plants may be significantly under-reported by as much as five times and might even equal emission levels from the EU’s large coal-fired power stations. Sampling results in Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic in fact showed a disturbing high mercury level though Euro Chlor, a business association representing European chlorine producers, neglected these reports saying that these were inaccurate.
It will be interesting to monitor the outcome on this proposed directive given that the barometers’ permanent derogation will force a second reading in parliament as it contradicts a deal passed with member states’ ambassadors to limit the derogation to two years. The bill is now being forwarded to the Council of Ministers for a vote in first reading, then it will probably be sent back to parliament.
It is thus still unclear whether the EU would become entirely mercury-free.
However, mercury thermometers look certain to become museum pieces.
Ronald Mizzi is research analyst at Forum Malta fl-Ewropa
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