EC calls for ban on mercury in barometers
By David Rennie in Brussels
(Filed: 22/02/2006)
Thermometers and barometers containing mercury must be banned to prevent tons of the toxic metal entering the food chain, the European Commission said yesterday.
The commission formally proposed a ban on the use of mercury in new fever thermometers, room thermometers, barometers, blood pressure meters, and other pressure meters sold to the general public.
A spokesman for the EU industry commissioner, Günter Verhaugen, said there were alternatives that worked as well and cost about the same.
He said that digital thermometers were the main alternatives for fever thermometers used for taking temperatures at home.
The announcement was hailed by environmental groups but it was sharply criticised by a leading British maker of traditional barometers and thermometers, Russell Scientific Instruments.
The firm's current managing director, Charles Allen, said the EU ban would force him to lay off virtually all his employees, based at Dereham in Norfolk.
The formal proposal for a ban must be approved by national governments and the European Parliament before becoming law. Bowing to pleas from hospitals and representations from the British Government, among others, the commission ban excludes medical instruments used in hospitals.
telegraph.co.uk
By David Rennie in Brussels
(Filed: 22/02/2006)
Thermometers and barometers containing mercury must be banned to prevent tons of the toxic metal entering the food chain, the European Commission said yesterday.
The commission formally proposed a ban on the use of mercury in new fever thermometers, room thermometers, barometers, blood pressure meters, and other pressure meters sold to the general public.
A spokesman for the EU industry commissioner, Günter Verhaugen, said there were alternatives that worked as well and cost about the same.
He said that digital thermometers were the main alternatives for fever thermometers used for taking temperatures at home.
The announcement was hailed by environmental groups but it was sharply criticised by a leading British maker of traditional barometers and thermometers, Russell Scientific Instruments.
The firm's current managing director, Charles Allen, said the EU ban would force him to lay off virtually all his employees, based at Dereham in Norfolk.
The formal proposal for a ban must be approved by national governments and the European Parliament before becoming law. Bowing to pleas from hospitals and representations from the British Government, among others, the commission ban excludes medical instruments used in hospitals.
telegraph.co.uk
