Health alert: Mercury rising

This is not about the 1998 Bruce Willis-starrer/action thriller where Willis plays an undercover FBI agent tasked to protect a nine-year-old autistic boy who’s being pursued by assassins for cracking a top secret government code. It’s about the rising mercury wastes in our midst. From your high school science subject, you’ve probably learned that mercury is a heavy metal that’s found in several forms, all of which have toxic effects in high enough doses.

Mercury poisoning can cause damage to the brain, kidney, and lungs. In children, it can cause kidney dysfunction, memory impairment, and insomnia. Telltale signs of mercury poisoning in children include red cheeks, red nose, red lips; loss of hair, teeth, and nails.

Just how do we get poisoned by mercury? How do we get it into our body? The most common source of mercury poisoning is eating mercury-infested fish. Be forewarned that you can also get mercury from livestock and plants due to the bioaccumulation of mercury from soil, water, and atmosphere, and due to biomagnification by ingesting other mercury-containing organisms.

You can get mercury poisoning from eating processed foods containing mercury residues, such as high-fructose corn syrup.

You can be exposed to the mercury vapor in mercury amalgam dental restorations. Also, from improper use or disposal of mercury and mercury-containing objects, and the improper disposal of fluorescent lamps.

Regarding the latter, EcoWaste Coalition, a waste and pollution watchdog, recently appealed to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to issue down-to-earth concrete rules to ensure the environmentally-sound management of mercury lamp waste.

At a recent workshop on mercury sponsored by EcoWaste, environmental advocates underscored the urgency to impose stringent rules on the safe collection, treatment, and disposal of lamp waste as the country shifts from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).

Flashback: At the Philippine Energy Summit in 2008, it was announced that the Philippines would phase out inefficient incandescent bulbs by January 2010 and replace them with energy-efficient CFLs that typically contain from 1 to 25 milligrams of mercury, a highly toxic metal.

Thony Dizon, coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition’s Project PROTECT (People Responding and Organizing against Toxic Chemical Threats), laments, “We are deeply concerned with the massive switch to mercury lamps for energy efficiency that is not matched with adequate consumer education on toxic risks and a functional system for managing lamp waste, especially among residential and commercial users, to prevent adverse health and environmental impacts.”

He adds with a hint of alarm, “The widespread practice of tossing broken or spent mercury lamps in regular domestic waste stream, as if they were ordinary discards, and their recycling in uncontrolled conditions can expose informal recyclers and their communities to mercury.”

The workshop was quite an eye-opener for those who didn’t know much about mercury, which is all around us. Dr. Lynn Panganiban, head of the UP National Poison Management and Control Center, explains that one can get in contact with this pollutant via air inhalation, food consumption, water intake, and skin absorption.

According to Angelita Brabante, chief of the chemicals management section of the Environmental Management Bureau, mercury and mercury compounds are toxic to aquatic life even at low concentrations and that the inhalation of mercury vapors and the ingestion of methylated forms of mercury can cause neurological disorders as cited in the DENR Chemical Control Order for Mercury and Mercury Compounds.

Government statistics on mercury lamp waste disposal show that 88 percent of households, 77 percent of commercial establishments, and 33 percent of hospitals disposed their end-of-life mercury lamps as domestic waste.

Here’s an urgent reminder: Waste containing toxic constituents such as mercury should not be mixed with regular waste and should be separated and subjected to appropriate hazardous treatment and disposal, consistent with Republic Act 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act) and Republic Act 6969 (Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Act).

The burning of mercury-added products in waste such as mercury lamps emits upwards of 200 tons of mercury in the atmosphere annually, according to a study by the Mercury Policy Project in 2009 and co-released in Manila by Ban Toxics, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, and the EcoWaste Coalition.

And now, EcoWaste Coalition gives eco-friendly tips on how to safely manage mercury lamp waste:

• Handle mercury lamp wastes with extreme care as they can easily break. Do not play with discarded lamps or leave them lying around.

• Do not throw mercury lamp waste into the regular waste bin.

• Do not burn mercury lamp waste — as well as other types of discards.

• Return discarded mercury lamp to its original corrugated box container or wrap it in used newspaper or paper bag, and attach a visible warning label into the item that says “Toxic: Mercury Lamp Waste.”

• Put the properly wrapped and labeled item into a secure place for temporary storage.

• For increased protection against lamp breakage and mercury exposure, store the discarded item in upright position into a tin or plastic container with cover for smaller compact fluorescent lamps or a cupboard for linear lamps.

• Mark the container where the lamp waste is stored with a readable warning “Toxic: Mercury Lamp Waste.”

• Ensure that the place where the mercury lamp waste is kept is safe and out of children’s reach and away from elements and human traffic.

• Contact mercury lamp manufacturers and/or distributors to check if they have a take-back program for their products after their useful lives, or suggest a take-back program if they have none.

• Press the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the National Solid Waste Management Commission and local government units to institute a collection program for mercury lamp waste, including drop-off points, for environmentally-sound storage. –Ching M. Alano (The Philippine Star)

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