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Global Mercury-Free Health Care

The Mercury-Free Health Care website provides information on the environmental health issue of mercury and the need to curb the widespread use of mercury in the health care sector. The will also feature an exhibit of non-mercury alternatives that are available for hospitals. Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) website also serves as an information center for conferences on the topic that are expected to draw stakeholders in the health care industry from all across the region to devise plans on how to eliminate mercury in health care facilities. The conference will also feature an exhibit of non-mercury alternatives that are available for hospitals. HCWH is an international coalition of more than 400 organizations in 52 countries working to transform the health care industry so it is no longer a source of harm to people and the environment.

The Zero Mercury Campaign

The Zero Mercury Campaign website is part of the Global Zero Mercury Campaign Project having as its ultimate objective "Zero" emissions, demand and supply of mercury, from all sources we can control, in view of reducing to a minimum, mercury in the environment at EU level and globally. In collaboration with the (international) Ban Hg Working Group, the EEB started the European "Zero Mercury" Campaign having as its ultimate objective "Zero" emissions, demand and supply of mercury, from all sources we can control, in view of reducing to a minimum, mercury in the environment at EU level and globally.

Work on mercury at a global level, from the side of the NGOs, started in 2002, with the formation of the international Ban Mercury Working Group, formed initially by 2 US based NGOs, the Basel Action Network and the Mercury Policy Project. The EEB has recently joined the Ban-Hg-WG, is collaborating closely with the international coalition and is coordinating this new "Zero Mercury" Campaign, which will build up on the work done so far and go even further by extending the network worldwide.

Got Mercury?

Sea Turtle Restoration Project, a California-based nonprofit organization has made available an easy-to-use online seafood mercury calculator to help consumers make informed choices about their seafood consumption. The calculator allows consumers to calculate what their blood mercury levels would be from eating mercury-contaminated seafood and compare it to values that are considered safe by the US Environmental Protection Agency. (http://www.gotmercury.org )

Mass.gov Mercury Resources

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has developed a web page resource for learning about mercury, understanding its environmental and public health impacts, safely managing products and wastes that contain it, and finding out what state government is doing to reduce and ultimately eliminate the mercury threat. SEE: http://www.state.ma.us//dep/bwp/hgres.htm

North Star Chapter Sierra Club

The North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club has put together an action website on mercury.

Natural Resources Defense Council

The Natural Resouces Defense Council website offers information on mercury's effects and its sources, tips for eating fish more safely and action opportunities you can take right now to reduce the threat from this hazardous pollution. Each year, U.S. power plants and other industrial facilities spew as much as 150 tons of mercury or more into the air. Mercury pollution settles into oceans and waterways, and gradually accumulates in fish. Eating fish contaminated with mercury, a poison that interferes with the brain and nervous system, can cause serious health problems, especially for children and pregnant women.

Harvard School of Public Health

With methylmercury a worldwide contaminant of seafood and freshwater fish and known to produce adverse nervous system effects, especially during brain development, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and institutions in Japan, Denmark and the Faroe Islands undertook an assessment of possible brain function impairment in adolescent children due to prenatal exposure to mercury when the mother's diet was high in seafood. The authors found that high levels of mercury passed from mother to child in utero produced irreversible impairment to specific brain functions in the children.

New England Zero Mercury Campaign

In 1998, the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG/ECP) adopted a landmark goal to “virtually eliminate” releases of mercury from human activities into the environment. They also created an action plan to eliminate 50% of emissions by 2003. New England Zero Mercury Campaign was formed in 2000 to put public pressure on all six New England state governments to fulfill their commitment to eliminate mercury emissions, by the year 2010.

California Communities Against Toxics

California Communities Against Toxics (CCAT) advocates for environmental justice, pollution prevention, and world peace.

Pollution Probe's "Mercury In The Environment: A Primer"

A Canadian organization, called Pollution Probe, released a publication called "Mercury In The Environment: A Primer" in June 2003. The purpose of Pollution Probe's Mercury Primer is to provide an overview of the presence and effects of mercury in the environment and its impacts on human health. The primer identifies where mercury is being used and released, the risks associated with exposure to mercury, and ways to help prevent mercury pollution. The primer also describes what governments, businesses and individuals are doing to eliminate the use of mercury and prevent its release to the environment.

EPA's Safe Mercury Management Homepage for State and Local Mercury Collection/Recycling/Exchange Programs and Spill Clean Up

Many states and local agencies have developed collection/exchange programs for mercury-containing devices, such as thermometers, manometers, thermostats and fluorescent light bulbs. Some of these programs include free collection and replacement of mercury containing devices and others have employed a bounty approach to the collection of mercury containing devices. In many instances, the collection programs involve collaboration among state agencies, communities, and businesses. For further information, see the EPA's guidance on household mercury spills.

US Environmental Protection Agency Mercury Management

US Environmental Protection Agency Mercury Management website provides information about the treatment, disposal and management of mercury and mercury wastes, including technical assistance, regulatory support and information transfer. The site also has links to both Regional and State Mercury Management Programs including programs on medical/dental, car switch, collections, schools and legislation. In addition, the site has links to Federal Agency and Non-governmental Mercury Web Sites.

International Association of Oral Medicine & Toxicology

The International Association of Oral Medicine & Toxicology (IAOMT) is a membership organization for dental, medical and research professionals who seek to promote mercury-free denistry, and raise the standards of scientific biocompatibility in dental practice.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Food and Health Program raises awareness about pollutants in food and from food production, their sources, and their demonstrated or possible impacts on human health. They recently published the Smart Fish Guide for Safe, Sustainable Fish Consumption

Children's Health Environmental Coalition

Children's Health Environmental Coalition is a gateway to practical and accurate information for parents on how to prevent their children from being exposed to hazards in their homes. Visitors to www.checnet.org will find: Health eHouse, which contains a clickable virtual house that parents can tour, a quiz that provides a personalized assessment of the home environment, and articles, how to lists, shopping lists, chemical profiles and more to help parents determine if their child is at risk and how to keep them from harm.

EnviroHealthAction

EnviroHealthAction is an education and action center that provides an online community for health professionals and others interested in environmental health. It is designed to provide busy professionals with the opportunity to access important resources and deliver valuable input to policymakers. The goal at EnviroHealthAction is to bring the health professional voice to the forefront of the environmental health discussion.

Mercury in Schools

The Mercury in Schools site offers all the information and resources you need to learn about mercury, teach about mercury, and reduce or eliminate its use in your school.

Children's Health and the Environment in the Faroes

The CHEF research projects focus on the health of children and adults in the Faroect of Islands with emphasis on the impact of seafood diet and marine contaminants. The overall aim is a) to improve and apply methods for assessment of chemical exposures and b) to assess their possible adverse effects on growth and development, especially on neurobehavioral, cardiovascular, endocrine, and immunological functions.

Computer TakeBack Campaign

The goal of the Computer TakeBack Campaign is to protect the health and well being of electronics users, workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded by requiring consumer electronics manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products, through effective public policy requirements or enforceable agreements.

Clean Car Campaign

The Clean Car Campaign is a national campaign coordinated by state, regional and national environmental organizations promoting a clean revolution in the motor vehicle industry. In particular, the campaign seeks to promote the development and sale of advanced technology vehicles that meet a high standard of environmental performance.

Health Care Without Harm

Health Care without Harm is a collaborative campaign for environmentally responsible health care. More than 170 organizations are working together to eliminate the pollution in health care practices without compromising safety or care.

Ban Mercury Working Group

The Ban Mercury Working Group (Ban Hg-Wg) is an international network of activists working to end pollution from the toxic metal -- mercury. The Mission of the Ban Hg-Wg is to engage and participate collectively in the United Nations Environment Program's Global Mercury Assessment

Mercury Poisoning Project

The Mercury Poisoning Project provides up to date information on the environmental health risks and effects from domestic and commercial mercury exposure associated with its magico-religious uses. It also addresses mercury exposures from plumber’s manometer spills and gas pressure regulator spills.

Safe Minds

The Coalition for SAFE MINDs (Sensible Action For Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders) is a new, non-profit organization founded by parents to investigate and raise awareness of the risks to infants and children of exposure to mercury from medical products, including thimerosal in vaccines. SAFE MINDs founders have prepared and compiled a number of research papers on the potential harmful effects of mercury and thimerosal. The findings strongly suggest that these substances are likely causative factors in a number of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, attention deficit disorder, language delay, and learning difficulties.

National Vaccine Information Center

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is dedicated to the prevention of vaccine injuries and deaths through public education. NVIC provides assistance to parents whose children have suffered vaccine reactions; promotes research to evaluate vaccine safety and effectiveness as well as to identify factors which place individuals at high risk for suffering vaccine reactions; and monitors vaccine research, development, policy-making and legislation. NVIC supports the right of citizens to exercise informed consent and make educated, independent vaccination decisions for themselves and their children.

National Wildlife Federation

NWF is a membership-based organization focusing on five core issue areas: endangered habitat, water quality, land stewardship, wetlands, and sustainable communities. NWF's Great Lakes Natural Resources Center (based in Ann Arbor, MI) has been working on mercury issues for the past decade, and is a leader on the impact of air deposition on water quality. NWF has developed a series of fact sheets on the problems associated with mercury contamination, including several on mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

www.amalgam.org

Ever since dentists first started installing amalgams in patients' teeth there has been an issue as to whether mercury is released and causes health (pathophysiologic) problems. www.amalgam.org works to document pathophysiologic effects associated with amalgam mercury.

E-Wire

E-Wire is a leading press release distribution service dedicated to environmental news, products and events. E-Wire delivers environment related news, research, services, and product information to major news organizations, publications, government agencies, databases and environmental professionals around the world.