May 12, 2008 - Toxic releases to air and land caused by mercury-containing products in the U.S. plunged an estimated 88% from 1990 to 2005, according to a new study from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Water releases dropped 83%.

"Reductions in the mercury content of some products, along with mercury emissions limitations imposed on municipal and medical incinerators, have resulted in significant reductions in mercury releases," says EPA scientist Alexis Cain, who led the study.

A number of commonly used products release mercury throughout their lifecycles. Significant sources of mercury releases include emissions from steel furnaces because of mercury containing devices in autos and other scrapped equipment, from transport and storage of waste because of broken mercury equipment, from cremations because of the mercury contained in dental amalgam used for tooth fillings, and from burn barrels used for trash disposal in rural areas.

Concerns over the human health hazards of mercury exposure, primarily from consumption of tainted fish, have sparked public campaigns to eliminate mercury-containing thermometers and to discontinue mercury use in energy-saving fluorescent lightbulbs.

Despite the declines, however, mercury released from products continues to account for nearly a third of total mercury emissions to the air in the U.S.