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Auto Mercury-Switch Recovery
Reaches Million Marker

>>> EPA Video Link Green Scene:  Mercury Switch Recovery — February 20, 2008. Rick Otis, EPA Deputy Associate Administrator for Policy, Economics, and Innovation

A major mercury-recovery milestone was reached on Leap Day this year when the nation’s top environmental regulator pulled the one millionth — or so — mercury switch out of a junked car in DeKalb, Ga. “This really is a landmark achievement, and it’s worth celebrating,” said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. He was accompanied by Georgia’s U.S. senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson at Pull-A-Part, an Atlanta-based, do-it-yourself, used auto parts dealer.

The National Vehicle Switch Recovery Program (NVMSRP) was started in August 2006 by representatives of the vehicle dismantlers, vehicle shredders, steel recyclers, steelmakers, states, auto industry, EPA, Environmental Defense and the Ecology Center, to prevent toxic mercury emissions when cars are crushed and recycled for the steel.

The creation of the NVMSRP actually began in 2001 when the Ecology Center and Environmental Defense released groundbreaking reports on the use of mercury in auto switches and formed the Partnership for Mercury-Free Vehicles (PMFV) with the steel and auto recycling industries.

In 2002, Maine passed the nation’s first comprehensive legislation, which PMFV helped develop, requiring automakers to pay for switch collection and incentives for auto dismantlers. By 2006, nine other states had passed similar laws.

Mercury switches operate hood and trunk convenience lights as well as some anti-lock braking systems in vehicles made before 2004, when they were reportedly phased out by domestic automakers.

The program works like this: Participating automobile dismantlers and shredders remove mercury-containing switches from whole end-of-life vehicles, put them in NVMSRP-supplied containers, and then ship them pre-paid to an EPA warehouse near Detroit’s Metro Airport, where the mercury pellet is removed and sent on to a mercury recycler. Participants are paid $1 per switch out of a $4 million fund created by the auto and steel industry.

The official goal of the program is to recover 4 million switches in its first three years, but NVMSRP identifies the potential to recover 80 to 90 percent of the available mercury switches in the long term. Unfortunately, the national recovery rate of mercury switches in junked cars is only about 20 percent, and there are still about 40 million mercury switches in cars on the road. “We are trying to scale a very steep mountain,” said Clean Car Campaign Director Jeff Gearhart. “A million switches is an important plateau, but we face some huge challenges to get anywhere near the peak. We remain concerned that without additional resources, the program may not be able to reach its targeted capture rates.”

U.S. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson hails the success of vehicle mercury program with the one millionth mercury switch being removed from the waste stream. Seated at left, Steve Levetan, Senior Vice President, Pull-A-Part; at right, John Gilkeson, Senior Planner, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. U.S. EPA Photo by Eric Vance

In 2002, Maine passed the nation’s first comprehensive law, which PMFV helped develop, requiring automakers to pay for switch collection and incentives for auto dismantlers. By 2006, nine other states had passed mercury switch legislation similar to the Maine law and at least ten other states had voluntary programs.

The PMFV and its offspring, the NVMSRP, as well as the Lead-Free Wheels campaign, the recent launch of the www.HealthyCar.org website (a consumer’s guide to toxic chemicals in car interiors and children’s car seats), are part of ongoing efforts by the Ecology Center to make consumers more aware of toxic substances in their vehicles, and in turn, encourage automakers to provide products made with safer alternatives. For more information about the NVMSRP and other auto-related Ecology Center campaigns and programs, visit www.cleancarcampaign.org.

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Ecology Center April Meeting
to Feature “Exposed” Author

The Ecology Center is very excited to be bringing investigative journalist and author Mark Schapiro to town to keynote our April 10 annual membership meeting on the campus of Washtenaw Community College. Schapiro’s latest book, “Exposed, The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products: Who’s at Risk and What’s at Stake for American Power,” examines many of the seminal issues that drive the Ecology Center’s many campaigns to better regulate and phase out the use of toxic chemicals in this country.

Currently, Schapiro is Editorial Director of The Center for Investigative Reporting, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that recruits, funds and promotes good old-fashioned muckraking journalism by independent reporters and producers. As an investigative journalist, the West Coast-based Schapiro has lived and worked in and out of Europe over the last two decades, writing on environmental and international affairs for Harper’s, The Nation, Mother Jones, and The Atlantic Monthly.

In the early 1980s, Schapiro coauthored “Circle of Poison,” which revealed how the U.S. was exporting banned pesticides to developing countries. Twenty-five years later, Schapiro’s “Exposed“ flips that thesis on its head and details how the U.S. is fast becoming a dumping ground for chemicals banned abroad.

His book is an effort to show how American consumers are unwittingly being exposed to chemicals that are prohibited in the European Union because of their health dangers. Toys, electronics, and cosmetics — the very lipsticks, eyeliners and blushers, for example — banned from the shelves of EU stores are now widely available in the United States.

The retreat of the U.S. from a position of world leadership in environmental protection also has dire economic consequences, warns Schapiro. The emergence of the 27-member EU as the world’s largest and most affluent market, combined with their higher standards on toxic chemicals, is pushing the global market toward more sustainable production, while the U.S. continues to fall behind.

What’s so special about the EU and how did they end up the global leader in environmental protection, driving alternative manufacturing practices in China and Korea? And, why does U.S. policy seemingly ignore the data linking the rising rates of cancer, endocrine problems and reproductive disorders to chemical exposure? For answers, you could start by reading our review of “Exposed” in last summer’s newsletter, or by acquiring the book through our e-bookstore. Better yet, come see the author in person and ask him yourself. The answers may surprise you.

Learn More

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Connect with the Ecology Center
at MySpace & Facebook

Do you check your MySpace bulletins more often than your email? Are you hopelessly addicted to Facebook? Well, we have now made it even easier for you to stay up to date on important news and events that affect you and your environment. Like millions of others, the Ecology Center recently joined the world of social networking.

For those of you using MySpace, check out the Ecology Center’s profile where you will find highlights from our newsletter, links to all of our campaigns, and YouTube videos, featuring the “New Car Smell.” Our MySpace profile has already helped us reach over 500 people throughout the country. You can show your support by placing us in your top friends list!

Facebook users, let all of your friends know that you support the Ecology Center! Be friends with the Ecology Center, join our groups, RSVP to our events, even make an easy online donation through the Causes application. So far, we have reached 91 new friends in Ann Arbor and 70 college students in the area.

If you’re new to social networking websites, now is a great time to join and meet other Ecology Center supporters, discuss the latest environmental news, and share your views with others. We are excited about these new outreach websites, and hope that you will stop by and visit us on the web!

Check out our profiles!
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1005901125
www.myspace.com/ecology_center

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Toxic-Toy Testing Townhall Tour

Building on the momentum of our extremely successful HealthyToys.org website and database, the Ecology Center has taken our toxic toy testing services “on the road.” Since launching HealthyToys.org, we’ve sponsored over 12 “Toxic Toy Testing Townhalls” in locations ranging from Warren to Saginaw to Gibraltar to Grand Rapids. At each event, we’ve brought together health and environmental experts with political leaders to discuss the problem of toxic chemicals in children’s products. But, of course, the main attraction is the opportunity for parents and others to have several toys tested for free with the same XRF machine used in creating HealthyToys.org.

The Ecology Center is benefiting from these events in many ways. First, we’re providing a valuable and much appreciated service to community members. We’re thanked time and again for either providing reassurance about the safety of a family’s toys or for exposing potential chemical dangers lurking in a child’s favorite object. Second, we’re developing strong relationships with a wide spectrum of lawmakers: keeping toxic chemicals out of children’s toys is a truly bi-partisan issue and a unique opportunity to develop unusual partnerships. These relationships are critical to implementing our chemical reform regulatory agenda. Third, we’re able to publicly highlight the deficiencies in our current chemical regulatory system. Nearly every townhall has generated multiple media stories that emphasize this key point.

We hope that Ecology Center members and supporters continue to attend these events — more are being scheduled for the months ahead, so stay tuned!

Learn More

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EcoLink — March 2008
An online publication of the Ecology Center

Editor: Ted Sylvester
Layout: Rod Hunt

Comments and questions are welcome.
Please send to EcoLink Editor c/o melissa@ecocenter.org

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