Laptop Battery In the heart of Clifton, workers send tiny packets of poisonous mercury off to America's roads, lawns, hospitals, and firehouses.
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Thinkpad Out of a low-slung brick factory along Route 46, Comus International produces 400,000 mercury switches each year - tiny, bullet-sized capsules that turn on the light when a car hood opens and shut off lawn mowers when they tip over.
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Microsoft For decades, that mercury, most of it destined for automobile switches, ended up in the air and water. Steel and iron recyclers that melt down junked cars pump about 1,000 pounds of the toxic metal out of their smokestacks annually, the largest source of mercury pollution in New Jersey, according to the state's Mercury Task Force.
These data, they say, provide ample evidence that air pollution is the prime cause of mercury contamination in fish and that stringent emission regulations are tackling the problem. One of the scientists researching mercury in the Everglades, David Krabbenhoft of the U.S. Geological Survey, said that although Florida's experience confirms that reducing mercury air pollution will decrease fish contamination, "it is very difficult to anticipate the recovery time of a lake, stream or wetland in a different part of the world."
Laptop Computers Now, with biologists zeroing in on the dangers of mercury, Comus and the other businesses are leading the charge to keep the chemical out of the environment.
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Laptop Computer "When God made mercury, he made a good thing," said Comus' owner, Bob Romano. "Except that he forgot and made it toxic."
The first mechanism involves salvaging end products of AMP breakdown, or preventing them from leaving the cell.
Desktop Computer The switch maker, along with the state's largest scrap recyclers and steel smelters, is part of a state-sponsored pilot program to remove mercury switches from automobiles before they're shredded, crushed, and melted down and the mercury is freed. Meanwhile, automakers are phasing the switches out of vehicles.
Notebooks It's part of a series of regulations and voluntary efforts meant to cut mercury emissions inside the state, even as New Jersey pushes for a crackdown on coal-fired power plants beyond its borders. Over the last decade, garbage incinerators, once the largest local source, cut mercury pollution by 94 percent. In December, the state proposed rules requiring similar cuts from iron and steel smelters over the next seven years.
Lenovo Those businesses, meanwhile, are pushing state legislators to follow Maine's lead. That state became the first last year to order scrap yards to remove mercury switches from vehicles before they are dismantled. Maine also makes automakers pay a $1 per switch fee.
Hard Drive "There's two ways to resolve the issue," said Fred Cornell, environmental director of Hugo Neu Schnitzer East, a major metal recycler in Jersey City. "One way is to put [clean-air] equipment on the end of the steel mill that may cost tens of millions of dollars per plant. We certainly think using pollution prevention first is less expensive."
Travelstar Comus' 125 employees work two shifts, day and night, dropping jiggling silver beads of mercury into tiny metal and glass jackets. Mercury works well because it's the only metal that stays liquid at room temperature, making it both adaptable and a good conductor of electricity.
Gateway Environmental concerns are prompting companies to find alternatives. As recently as two years ago, Comus made 1 million mercury switches every 12 months. Now, its dropped to 400,000. The company once used 600 pounds of mercury monthly; it's down to about 200.
Laptop Parts When a switch is tipped, the bead of mercury inside opens or closes an electric circuit, turning a light on or off. The element is used to similar effects on medical equipment and on the "man-down" detectors that firefighters clip onto their uniforms, triggering alarms if the wearer is no longer upright.
Software The typical car has six or more switches, each with a gram of mercury that was once guaranteed to seep into the environment. Now, workers at Hugo Neu's vast scrap yard spend a few extra minutes per vehicle pulling out the switches. Comus collects car switches, along with those from thermostats, sump pumps, and other devices, packages them in sealed containers labeled "corrosive," and ships 300 to 600 per month to a Bethlehem, Pa., company that extracts and resells the mercury.
Hard Drives New Jersey had been subsidizing the recycling. The grant ran out three years ago, but Romano said he's kept up the effort at his own expense.
Electronics "I feel I owe it to the environment," he said. "Somebody's got to do it. ... It only hurts me more if these things get into the waste stream and people start worrying about mercury."
Canon By Alex Nussbaum
Bergen Record - 3/14/2004
Topic: Toxics
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