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News Archive
• January 2009: EPA, the American Dental Association, and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies enter into an agreement promoting best management practices for dental amalgam. The agreement establishes a Voluntary Dental Amalgam Discharge Reduction Program, which will encourage dental offices to install and properly maintain amalgam separators, and recycle the collected amalgam waste. Learn more about reducing the discharge of mercury amalgam in wastewater.
• January 2009: EPA published its final guidance for implementing the January 2001 Methylmercury Water Quality Criteria. This document provides technical guidance to states and authorized tribes on how they may want to use the fish tissue-based recommended water quality criterion for methylmercury in surface water protection programs (e.g., TMDLs, NPDES permitting).
Fact sheet | Final Guidance Document
• December 2008: EPA is initiating a phase out effort for mercury-containig thermometers in industrial and laboratory settings. The Agency is phasing out the use of these devices in its own laboratories and is reviewing standards and methods that may require the use of mercury-filled thermometers in order to bring about the opportunity for the use of alternatives. Read more.
• November 2008: EPA Encourages the Use of Mercury-Free Alternatives. EPA has posted a Risk Based Prioritization (RPB) document for mercury (PDF) (7 pp., 67KB, about PDF) under EPA's Chemical Assessment and Management Program (ChAMP). This preliminary assessment describes uses of elemental mercury in a number of products and concludes that switches, relays, button cell batteries, non-fever thermometers, and measuring devices such as thermostats do not have to contain mercury. Based on this assessment, EPA determined that mercury in these products poses a “high priority, special concern.” The Agency plans to take prompt regulatory and voluntary action to encourage the use of mercury-free alternatives and reduce the use of mercury in products.
• November 2008: EPA has also developed a searchable database of information from various sources to help identify consumer and commercial products that contain mercury and their possible non-mercury alternatives. EPA encourages people to use non-mercury alternatives whenever possible as an important way to prevent exposure to mercury, including exposure due to breakage.
• October 2008: EPA filed an appeal (PDF) (246 pp., 573K, about PDF files) with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the earlier vacatur of the Clean Air Mercury Rule by the U.S. Circuit Court. The appeal asks whether EPA may remove power plants from a list of source categories to be regulated under 42 U.S.C. 7412 when it determines that regulation under that provision is not appropriate or necessary.
• August 2008: EPA released Health Services Industry Detailed Study: Dental Amalgam (PDF) (76 pp., 1.0 M, about PDF). As required by the Clean Water Act (CWA), every other year EPA publishes an Effluent Guidelines Program Plan. In the 2006 Plan, EPA announced that it would conduct a detailed review of discharges into wastewater by the health services industry. EPA based its decision in part on public comments concerning the discharge of mercury from dental offices and dental laboratories. The study includes information on current mercury discharges from dental offices; best management practices; and amalgam separators. The study concludes that establishing national, categorical pretreatment standards for dental mercury discharges under the CWA is not appropriate at this time.
• May 2008: EPA has completed a study to better characterize fugitive mercury emissions from chlorine manufactures that use mercury cell technology. Study findings show that mercury emissions average about 0.2 tons per year per facility. EPA is also proposing to require manufacturers of chlorine using mercury cell technology to take additional steps to prevent mercury emissions. EPA would require plants not already monitoring mercury emissions to do so. Fact sheet (PDF) (3 pp., 49K, about PDF)