Politics on the Hudson

   In their report this week called “Turning Up the Heat,” environmental and public-health groups found that thermostat makers have collected less than 5 percent of the mercury thermostats that have gone out of service nationally in the past decade. The figure is even less for New York at 1.3 percent of the old thermostats.

   New York does not have a mandatory thermostat-collection program and receives just 1.9 thermostats per 10,000 residents. That puts New York at 31st in the country for thermostat recovery. The uncollected thermostats contain an estimated 66 to 96 tons of mercury, according to the groups. Maine, on the other hand, ranks first with 42.2 thermostats collected per 10,000 residents. People receive $5 for handing in their thermostats there.

   Along with ”Turning Up the Heat,” the organizations are urging lawmakers to pass legislation for a mandatory state-collection program with incentives to encourage higher collections and high standards. 

   Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Chairman Bob Sweeney, D-Suffolk County, said this week that he would be sponsoring legislation to encourage greater collection of products that contain mercury.

   Laura Haight, senior environmental associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group, said in a statement this week that New York should “turn up the heat” on thermostat manufacturers. “The manufacturers should stop spinning the meager results of their collection program and instead provide real incentives to bring in old mercury thermostats. New York should follow the example of Maine and Vermont and adopt a comprehensive thermostat collection program that works,” she said.

   Each thermostat contains about 4 grams of mercury—roughly 800 times more than what’s in a compact flourescent light bulb. About two million to three million thermostats containing seven to 10 tons of mercury come out of service each year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates. In the last 15  years, mercury use in U.S. thermostats has been reduced from an estimated 15 to 21 tons a year to less than one ton annually. Fifteen states, including New York, have banned the sale of new mercury thermostats.

   Mercury that gets out of a thermometer or thermostat can cause impairment of peripheral vision; lack of coordination of movements; impaired speech and hearing; and damage to the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune system.