A coalition of thirteen environmental and healthcare groups say New Hampshire's efforts to control Mercury emmissions are the worst of the Northern New England states.
While Maine pulled down a B, and Massachusetts and Vermont skated by with Gentleman’s Cs, New Hampshire’s D+ was the lowest grade north of Connecticut. The causes of New Hampshire’s mediocre performance are not new: industrial waste incinerators, insufficient state money dedicated to spreading the word on mercury’s harm as neurotoxin….And, as Doug Bogan of New Hampshire clean water action points out, fossil fuel burning power plants.
About 1/3rd of the mercury released in this country coming from man made services is the burning of coal. And our number one source in New Hampshire is the Bow power plant about seven miles due south of here. These plants need to be cleaned up. Coal needs to be phased out in our lifetime.
Also in need of phase-outs, says the report, are consumer products containing mercury. These range from the once ubiquitous mercury thermometer, to the blessedly rare glow in the dark toilet seat. More common, however, are mercury containing medical devices. And while New Hampshire was the first state in the nation to ban the sale of mercury thermometers, Laura Brannen of Health Care Without Harm, a group dedicated to making hospitals more environmentally conscious, says too many are still in use. Brannen also says hospitals need to do better to reduce mercury tainted medical waste.
Whether you’re incinerating your waste or whatever your doing, it shouldn’t be going into the regular trash anyway. It should be managed if your using it at all. We don’t really need to be using mercury containing thermometers and mercury containing equipment. …there are alternatives.
Brannen admits that in the short run such alternatives can be more expensive. ……The average non-mercury thermometer, or blood pressure guage can cost twice as much as it’s mercury-bearing counterpart. But ,says Brannen, considering some 65,000 American children a year are born at risk of mercury caused brain damage, that’s a small price to pay. She also notes that when mercury related accidents do occur – they’re not cheap.
I won’t name names, but a couple of weeks ago there was a blood pressure cuff that fell off a wall and spilled on a carpet in a patient area…A housekeeper came along a vacuumed it up: Not only did the vacuum have to go out as hazardous waste, but the entire carpet had to go out as hazardous waste and it cost the hospital about eight thousand dollars to clean up the spill.
The activists say they hope with school funding no longer monopolizing lawmakers time, more mercury control measures can win passage during next years legislative session. In the meantime they are doing their best to reiterate that eating certain – particularly swordfish, tuna, and mackerel – could be hazardous. Particularly for pregnant women and children…. And if New Hampshire wants to improve it’s mercury elimination grade to an A , the activists say the state will need to establish a concrete plan to eliminate mercury emissions, and enact legislation to ensure that plan’s completion.
