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

[chucko@siteconnect.com (Chuck Albertson)]

Quite true, it was methyl mercury, ingested via the fish caught in the
harbor. But one of the purposesof banning the stuff in batteries (among
other items) is to reduce the number of end uses of mercury, thereby
reducing the demand for it, and cutting down on its production, with its
inevitable releases to the environment. And disposal of the batts at the end
of their life cycle is still responsible for a significant degree of
contamination.

Chuck Albertson
Seattle, Wash.

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Raimo Korhonen" <raimo.korhonen@pp2.inet.fi>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 9:18 AM
Subject: Vs: [Leica] Re: Re: Battery adapter wanted (became a long story)


Metallic mercury is not particularly harmful - but some organic compounds
that contain mercury are lethal and that´s what caused Minamata, not mercury
batteries.
All the best!
Raimo
photos at http://personal.inet.fi/private/raimo.korhonen

- -----Alkuperäinen viesti-----
Lähettäjä: Jim Brick <jim_brick@agilent.com>
Vastaanottaja: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
<leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>; leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
<leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Päivä: 08. syyskuuta 2000 20:29
Aihe: [Leica] Re: Re: Battery adapter wanted (became a long story)


>At 09:34 AM 9/8/00 -0700, Chuck Albertson wrote:
>>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.
>
>Aa Ha!
>
>This explains why I am like I am. I played with mercury by the hours as a
>kid. We coated all of out coins, giving them that slick glossy silver look.
>Cool! I made a mercury barometer as my science project in high school. I
>still have the pound or two of mercury I used as the well. Still in the
>same container with a hole in the top for the glass tube to stick through.
>I guess I won't drink it though.
>
>I've always wondered why the many many tens of thousands of kids that grew
>up in the hundreds of years before the EPA, who played with metallic
>(liquid) mercury and grew up to be CEO's Scientists, Business moguls, etc,
>never had a rotten brain problem?
>
>Perhaps it is the form, pure liquid Hg vs a particular mercury compound
>ingested, that caused the Minimata problem.
>
>
>
>Jim Brick, ASMP
>Senior Scientist
>Agilent Technologies
>Imaging Electronics Division
>jim_brick@agilent.com