Moving Towards Mercury-Free Health Care: Substituting Mercury-Based Medical Devices in India – by Anu Agrawal

This document tries to present the efforts and initiatives taken so far by people fighting against the use of mercury in the Health Care Settings. A lot has happened after a small report was released which documented the yearly release of this toxic heavy metal from health facilities using mercury based instruments and products. Many Hospitals turned mercury free voluntarily and a few more shifted recently after the Delhi government order to phase out the use of mercury in the hospitals. To be mercury-free might be a voluntary decision for a few more years, but as environmental laws and quality accreditations become stricter this might be a mandatory requirement soon. Thus it is time for all of us to do some introspection and start changing. The experiences of people who have changed have been documented in the report and a small chronicle of what has happened on the mercury front has been profiled to help people in their journey to go “mercury free”.

Fishing Toxics Mercury Contamination of Fish in West Bengal

Mercury in Our Mouth An estimation of Mercury usage and release

An estimation of mercury usage and release from the Dental Sector in India. The estimated annual use of mercury in this sector stands around 65 tons, where 49 tons gets into cavities and 16.2 tons is mostly thrown into the environment as non-contact amalgam. The estimated annual mercury release due to removal or replacement of old fillings (contact amalgam) is 66 ton. This entire amount would mostly end up in municipal bins and thus soil and groundwater contamination. These two mediums are also rich in micro-organisms responsible for methylation of mercury