If you do, be careful to keep them out of the trash or drain when they reach the end of their useful lives. When products containing mercury are placed in the trash, the mercury doesn't disappear. It finds its way into the environment from waste incinerators, landfills, or wastewater treatment facilities. Mercury is a nerve toxin that may impair the way we see, hear, walk and talk.
Atmospheric mercury mixes with rain and snow and falls into lakes and waterways.
When mercury is deposited in lakes or waterways, bacteria convert it to methyl mercury. Methyl mercury contaminates the food chain and builds up in the tissue of fish and of wildlife and humans who eat the fish. Because of high mercury concentrations in the fish, several Great Lakes states issue advisories each year cautioning people to limit how much fish they eat. The remaining mercury comes from natural sources, such as volcanoes and forest fires. About a gram of mercury enters a 20-acre lake each year.