The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has initiated a Medical Waste Mercury Reduction Project to reduce the amount of mercury discharged into the environment.
Mercury continues to be used routinely at medical facilities.
Mercury's usefulness in the medical industry must be weighed against its hazards when released into the environment through incineration or discharges from publicly owned treatment works. Mercury is also released into the environment through the incineration of mercury-containing materials from hospital facilities that have been placed in infectious waste containers. Because there are currently no federal regulations for medical facilities to limit the discharges of mercury down the drain, voluntary programs must be implemented to encourage the medical industry to reduce the use of mercury and its releases into the environment through product substitution, recycling, and proper handling and disposal practices. In an effort to track reductions in mercury from medical facilities, it is necessary to quantify the mercury that is currently in use. The purpose of this section is to present the elements needed to qualify and quantify the amount of mercury used in a medical facility.