Re: [Leica] Re: Battery adapter wanted (became a long story)

[chucko@siteconnect.com (Chuck Albertson)]

The stuff rots your brain, especially kids' brains---take a look at the
back-of-the-book photos in Minimata for examples. If mercury is still being
used in flourescent lights, it's probably due to a lack of alternative
materials at the moment (or the political clout of the flourescent light
manufacturers). There are alternatives to its use in batts, however, which
is why it can and should be banned in them. In all of the contaminated
landfill cases I've been involved in the past 10 years, mercury is one the
most common (and persistent) contaminant in most of them, and it's generally
put down to discarded batts in household waste.

Chuck Albertson
Seattle, Wash.

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Buzz Hausner" <Buzz@marianmanor.org>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2000 5:03 AM
Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: Battery adapter wanted (became a long story)


> Trust me, Hans-Peter, mercury is one very nasty environmental contaminant,
> it is extremely toxic in even small doses and it may be both ingested in
its
> liquid form and inhaled as a vapor.  EU and US regulators were unusually
> wise in banning the production of mercury batteries.  They were not being
> capriciously mean to devotees of old photographic equipment.
>
> Buzz Hausner
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hans-Peter.Lammerich@t-online.de
> [mailto:Hans-Peter.Lammerich@t-online.de]
> Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 4:43 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: [Leica] Re: Battery adapter wanted (became a long story)
>
> After all I find it stupid that EU and US legislators banned mercury
> batteries instead of just requiring that new cameras, hearing aids etc.
> shall work with mercury free batteries. Mercury cells in my cameras seem
> to last for years instead of the 4 to 6 weeks quoted for zinc-air cells.
> Are 30 to 60 zinc-air cells that I would need to purchase over five
> years better for the environment than a single mercury cell, even
> without recycling? Where is the proper environmental impact assessment
> to prove that zinc-air is better? Why legislators are bashing the
> minority of classic camera users, but not owners of 3 ton, 400 hp "sport
> utilitiy vehicles"? Zinc-air is probably ok for hearing aids which suck
> any battery in 4 weeks, for occasional use and low current applications
> like photoelectric meters mercury is hard to beat. I am not really
> willing to accept the limited life of the . Because the battery is
> hidden inside the Rollei 35 and Leica CL, you can replace it only in the
> dark or when you change the film.
>