The mercury is a permanent biological accumulating substance. Even a trace amount of mercury may cause great hazard to the health of human body. Under the international trend of “restricting the mercury progressively, banning the mercury finally”, the government of every nation in the world restricts to use mercury in some products and adopts strict control measures for their final disposal. The common mercury-containing products include people's livelihood articles, such as dry cell, mercury thermometer and mercury sphygmomanometer etc. No matter waste mercury-containing products are treated by incineration or landfill, the mercury may flow and distribute in the environment. So it is necessary to control the source of these products effectively, in order to eliminate its hazard. Upon considering the hazard of mercury to the environment and the health of human body, the Environmental Protection Administration of Executive Yuan (hereinafter referred as EPA) not only continues the control work of mercury-containing dry cell, but also assesses other mercury-containing products to promote the source reduction policy continuously. The works completed by this project include: (1) Promote the restriction policy of mercury-containing products continuously; (2) Help to promote the restriction policy of mercury thermometer and mercury sphygmomanometer, cooperate with the relevant supplementary measures, and propose the recycling way of mercury thermometer and mercury sphygmomanometer; (3) Help to handle the restriction policy of mercury-containing products and propose the relevant supplementary measures for Phase 2 of project; (4) Handle the browse webpage and database expansion and maintenance for the restriction policy of mercury-containing products; and (5) Handle the relevant meeting and help to deal with the relevant work of mercury restriction policy. According to the execution results, as for the control of mercury content in the cell, no matter it is inspected by the firms or tested by the competent authority, the ratio is reduced gradually for mercury content over 5ppm of control standard (below 0.6% in 2007). The maximum value is reduced from 4,240ppm in 2005 to only 40.1ppm in 2007. The ratio of non-detectable (N.D.) is up to 98%, which shows the control effect is very good. In addition, upon comparing to EU Battery Directive for the content of heavy metal, the cadmium content for 10% (12 types) of cell is over 20ppm, which exceeds the stricter control standard revised by European Union in 2006. It is recommended that the control limit of cadmium content can be increased in the future. The questionnaire investigation result of manufacturing and import sector, medical organization and medical device dealer shows that the utilization amount of mercury thermometer and mercury sphygmomanometer is still very high. Based on the result of 567 effective questionnaires, it is estimated that about 527,000 mercury thermometers are used per year in whole country, and about 3,700,000 mercury thermometers are stored in the house at present. About 85,000 mercury sphygmomanometers are manufactured and imported per year. About 45,000 of them are exported to foreign countries, and the other 40,000 of them are consumed in the domestic market. Totally, about 3,032 kg of mercury enters the domestic market per year. Due to the substitution technology of mercury thermometer is mature, the inspection standard and technical specification have been established. The domestic firms and users have common understanding. There is restriction experience in foreign countries. It shows the control timing is mature. The EPA has completed the draft of “Restriction for Import, Sales of Mercury Thermometer”, and the promulgation procedure has been completed in October 2007. As for the mercury sphygmomanometer, it is recommended that the restriction measures will not be adopted temporarily, because the inspection standard and technical specification have not been established, and the medical quality will not be influenced. The products such as other measuring equipments, mercury-containing switch, and mercury amalgam (teeth filling agent), and the places such as schools, and hospitals are the subjects for promoting source reduction of mercury-containing products in next stage, through Sino-American technological communication and collection of international management information. As for the mercury thermometer and mercury sphygmomanometer used in the domestic market, they have recycle value, because the mercury weight is large and the mercury purity is high (above 99.99%). The independent waste code shall be given to it for better management. The medical organization shall be declared that do not incorporate it into the infectious industrial waste or general industrial waste for treatment. Item 8, Article 20 of “Storage, Disposal, Treatment Method and Facility Standard of Industrial Waste” shall be used to help and track the firms to enter the heat treatment system, in order to recycle the mercury element.

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