[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 41 (Thursday, March 13, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3733-S3734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Chafee, Mr. Kerry, 
        Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. Reed, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Voinovich, Mr. 
        Dorgan, and Mr. Leahy):
  S. 616. A bill to amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to reduce the 
quantity of mercury in the environment by limiting the use of mercury 
fever thermometers and improving the collection and proper management 
of mercury, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Environment and 
Public Works.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Mercury 
Reduction Act of 2003. I am pleased that my colleagues, Senators 
Jeffords,

[[Page S3734]]

Chafee, Kerry, Hutchison, Reed, Lieberman, Voinovich, Dorgan, and Leahy 
have joined me in this initiative. Our legislation addresses the very 
serious problems of mercury in the environment and mercury disposal. It 
takes special aim at one of the most common and widely distributed 
sources of mercury mercury fever thermometers while also for the first 
time creating a nationwide policy for dealing with surplus mercury.
  Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that is widespread in the environment 
and particularly harmful to developing children. In fact, according to 
a draft report recently released by the EPA, approximately 5 million 
American women of childbearing age have mercury levels in their 
bloodstream above safe levels. Tragically, the children of these women 
will have an elevated risk of birth defects.
  When mercury enters the environment, it takes on a highly toxic 
organic form known as methylmercury. Methylmercury is almost completely 
absorbed into the blood and distributed to all tissues including the 
brain. This organic mercury can accumulate in the food chain and become 
concentrated in some species of fish, posing a health threat to some 
people who consume them. For this reason, 40 States have issued 
freshwater fish advisories that warn certain individuals to restrict or 
avoid consuming fish from affected bodies of water.
  One prevalent source of mercury in the environment is from mercury 
fever thermometers. Many of us know from personal experience that they 
are easily broken. In fact, in 1998 the American Poison Control Center 
received 18,000 phone calls from consumers who had broken mercury 
thermometers.
  One mercury thermometer contains a little under one gram of mercury. 
Despite its small size, the mercury in one thermometer, if it were 
released annually into the environment, is enough to contaminate all 
the fish in a 20-acre lake.
  The bill we are introducing today calls for a nationwide ban on the 
sale of mercury fever thermometers. It would also provide grants for 
swap programs to help consumers exchange mercury thermometers for 
digital or other alternatives.
  Our legislation would allow millions of consumers across the Nation 
to receive free digital thermometers in exchange for their mercury 
thermometers. By bringing mercury thermometers in for proper disposal, 
consumers will ensure the mercury from their thermometers does not end 
up polluting our lakes and threatening our health. It will also reduce 
the risk of breakage and contamination inside the home.
  An important component of our bill is the safe disposal of the 
mercury collected from thermometer exchange programs, which are 
increasingly popular in communities throughout our country. I want to 
make sure that we are actually removing surplus mercury from the 
environment and from commerce, rather than simply recycling it. It 
obviously does little good to collect all this mercury from thermometer 
exchange programs if it is going to be recycled into new products and 
put back into commerce and eventually into our environment. This bill 
directs the EPA to ensure that the mercury is properly collected and 
stored in order to keep it out of the environment and out of 
commerce. Once the mercury is collected, my intention is it will never 
again be able to pose a threat to the health of our children.

  The mercury collected from thermometer exchange programs is only part 
of the problem. There is a bigger problem, and that is the global 
circulation of mercury. Let me give an example. When the HoltraChem 
manufacturing plant in Orrington, ME, shut down a few years ago, the 
plant was left with over 100 tons of unwanted mercury and no known way 
to permanently and safely dispose of it. In total, about 3,000 tons of 
mercury is held at similar plants across the country.
  Yet despite this surplus mercury, large amounts of mercury are still 
being mined around the world. In addition, the Department of Defense 
currently has a stockpile of over 4,000 tons of surplus mercury it does 
not know what to do with and for which it does not have any use.
  In view of these facts, why are Algeria and other countries still 
mining huge amounts of an element that is a known neurotoxin, when the 
United States and other countries are doing their best to remove this 
extremely toxic element from the environment? How will the United 
States dispose of the huge amounts of mercury at chlor-alkali plants 
and other sources that no longer are understood?
  Our bill would create an interchange task force to address these very 
questions. The task force would be chaired by the Administrator of the 
Environmental Protection Agency and would be comprised of members from 
other Federal agencies involved with mercury. Our legislation directs 
this task force to find ways to reduce the mercury threat to humans and 
to our environment, to identify long-term means of disposing of mercury 
safely and properly, and to address the excess mercury problems from 
mines as well as industrial sources. This task force would also be 
directed to identify comprehensive solutions to the global mercury 
problem. One year from the creation of this task force, it would be 
required to submit its recommendations to the Congress for permanently 
disposing of mercury and for reducing the amount of new mercury mined 
every year.
  In the meantime, this legislation would make significant progress 
toward reducing one of the most widespread sources of mercury 
contamination in the environment, a source that is found in many of our 
homes; that is, the mercury thermometer. Perhaps even more important, 
this legislation would, for the first time ever, establish a national 
policy, which is what we need to deal with surplus mercury in order to 
protect our environment in the long term, as well as our health, and 
particularly the health of developing children, from this highly toxic 
element.
  I hope many more of my colleagues will join me in cosponsoring this 
legislation and that it will be signed into law this year.
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