EPA touts mercury removal program

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- U.S officials say efforts to remove mercury-containing switches from old cars is helping to reduce mercury air emissions.

A voluntary Environmental Protection Agency program has resulted in the removal of more than 635,000 switches from cars that were headed to the scrap heap. The EPA said the switches represent 1,400 pounds of mercury, which is more than the average coal-fired power plant emits in a year.

The program, launched in August 2006, works with steelmakers, vehicle manufacturers, automobile recyclers, and scrap metal recyclers to recover mercury-containing light switches in cars that were built before 2002. The vehicles can then be dismantled, crushed, shredded and melted to make new steel without steelmakers having to worry about mercury being left in the mix, the agency said Friday in a release.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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