March 22, 2002

As part of the MGH’s ongoing Mercury Containment Initiative (MCI), field teams from the Safety Office and Triumvirate Environmental Services have been working with MGH researchers and clinicians to collect and test products for mercury content to help eliminate the unintentional discharge of the toxic element.

Since January, the MCI field teams have collected close to 200 reagent samples from nearly 500 clinical and research laboratories to identify previously undocumented and unsuspected potential sources of mercury, which can be hazardous to the environment in even modest levels.

According to Jim Turner, an MCI committee coordinator, approximately two-thirds of the reagents tested so far contain detectable levels of mercury, and roughly one-third of tested reagents indicated mercury concentrations that are higher than the acceptable limits set by the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA). The allowable discharge concentration set by the MWRA has been reduced from 4 parts-per-billion to 1 part-per-billion. "Perhaps even more surprising are some of the seemingly harmless items found to contain mercury, such as household bleach, dishwashing detergents, common soaps, acetone, isopropanol and numerous stains and buffers," he says.

To help employees identify potential mercury-containing products, a current list of tested reagents can be found on the MGH MCI website located at http://phsweb17/ref/u&e/mercweb. The website also includes a list of mercury-free reagents and a list of suppliers for some mercury-free alternative products.

"With this information and recommended handling and disposal techniques devised by the Safety Office, we are confident that we can reach our mercury discharge concentration goal by July," says Turner. For more information, call Elisabeth Wilson of the MGH Safety Office at (617) 726-2425 or visit http://phsweb17/ref/u&e/mercweb.