With the digital age come, well, digital things.
Among them are digital thermometers, which are easier to read and, public health officials say, safer.
With old mercury thermometers on the cusp of being phased out by consumer choice, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Tri-County Health Department are launching a 29-county initiative to collect and get rid of the devices.
“Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen alcohol and digital thermometers become more popular and mercury thermometers become a little harder to find,” said Dr. Richard Vogt, director of Tri-County Health, which serves Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties. “So we think people may be replacing their old thermometers with new ones and have a need for safe disposal.”
The collection program, which runs through July, is designed to prevent household exposure to mercury and reduce mercury pollution in the environment.
Mercury is a toxic metal that can impair neurological development in fetuses and young children. When emitted by power plants, mercury can settle in the nation’s waterways and eventually work its way into the food chain.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, an estimated 158 tons of mercury are released into the atmosphere annually from man-made sources in the United States. The agency estimates that mercury-containing thermometers contribute 17 tons of mercury to the national solid-waste stream annually.
“Usually with an individual incident, the health risk is not that great, but it can be problematic if ingested,” Vogt said. “So we recommend people take the safe route and safely dispose of them.”
To dispose of the thermometers, health officials advise bringing them to a collection site in their case or in an empty plastic water or soft-drink bottle to prevent breakage. The thermometers that are collected will be recycled by a company that extracts the mercury, Vogt said
Justin Laboe, an environmental health specialist with Tri-County Health, said only mercury thermometers are being accepted as part of the campaign. Other mercury-containing devices such as switches, gauges and batteries cannot be accepted at this time.
Many of those devices, however, can be collected at local household hazardous waste collection sites, Laboe said.
There are 29 counties participating in the collection program. For more information about collection sites, call your local health department, or outside the Denver area, call 888-569-1831 ext. 3320, or go to www.cdphe.state.co.us/hm/mercury.
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or kmcguire@denverpost.com.
