Tag:  mercury pollution

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Cleaning up toxic mercury from dental offices

Posted on by Cindy Kunst

Dental appointments make plenty of people nervous, but water pollution isn’t usually what they’re worrying about. According to Environmental Protection Agency estimates, however, dental offices are responsible for 50 percent of the mercury entering the nation’s wastewater. Dental amalgam is 49 percent mercury by weight, and dental offices discharge about 4.4 tons of it annually. […]

The Enviro Beat: Dried coal ash highly toxic, Duke scientists report

Posted on by Margaret Williams

An Aug. 15 Duke University study details just how toxic coal ash is: Samples taken from the Dec. 28, 2008, coal-ash spill near Kingston, Tenn., contain high levels of toxic metals and radioactive elements, including arsenic, mercury and radium. As the sludge dries, risk of exposure via inhalation increases dramatically, the Duke team found.