Community Cooling and Heating Inc.
239-267-2117
Many Ft Myers air conditioning systems contain toxic mercury despite the availability of safer, more efficient equipment!
In the first few hours of last weeks mercury spill in an Arcadia Florida Public School there was no information given as to where the child that brought the elemental mercury to school had gotten it. My first assumption was that he had probably gotten it from an old, discarded air conditioner thermostat. While most people today know how toxic mercury is, many of those same people don’t know that they have it inside their home.
Older air conditioner thermostats may contain elemental mercury!
“… mercury switch thermostats are safe and reliable while in use and mounted to the wall … it’s when they are discarded, or left laying in the garage or workshop, that they pose a threat …”
In the course of 44 years repairing air conditioners in SW Florida we have never encountered a mercury switch fail to the extent that it leaked mercury in a home. There have been numerous times, however, where we have seen them laying in tool boxes or on work benches and in harms way! We have even had a few ask us to leave the thermostat behind because they wanted to “check out the mercury!”
We always discourage this!
While contact with the skin is unlikely to expose one to toxic levels of mercury, the fumes given off by the mercury are another story. The amount of fumes given off by mercury have more to do with the surface area than the overall mass of the substance. Just a few grams, spilled onto a porous surface, and not cleaned up thoroughly, can emit toxic fumes for weeks. Combine this with poor ventilation, and frequent exposure and you could have a problem.
Quick Tip: When mercury is spilled in “difficult to get to” cracks and crevices, try using an eyedropper to gather it up.
CHILDREN AND INFANTS HAVE FAR LESS TOLERANCE TO EXPOSURE THAN ADULTS!!!
How Mercury Affects The Body
Damage to lungs and breathing passages
Affects the central nervous system
Impaired kidney function
Thermostats with mercury are currently being phased out, and in some states are banned from being sold or manufactured. Today most major manufacturers of thermostats no longer make thermostats with mercury switches. The availability, and affordability, of today’s digital products has been edging them closer and closer to obsolescence with each passing year.
Newer digital thermostats are more efficient and contain no mercury.
Recycling mercury switch thermostats, at a certified collection center, is the best way to keep your home safe from toxic mercury fumes!”
Your local air conditioning repair contractor should be happy to take your old thermostat and dispose of it in an approved manner that eliminates the household hazard, and protects our environment as well. Additionally, many local HVAC supply houses are TRC approved thermostat collection locations.
TROPIC SUPPLY INC.
6450 ARC WAY FORT MYERS, FL 33912
305-652-7717
CARRIER ENTERPRISE
7916 DREW CIRCLE, #6
SUITE 6 FORT MYERS, FL 33967
239-768-9400
TROPIC SUPPLY INC.
785 N.E. 19 PL CAPE CORAL, FL 33903
305-652-7717
R.E. Michel Company, Inc.
1736 Trade Center Way Naples, FL 34109
239-227-2990
Tropic Supply Inc.
4325 DOMESTIC AVE NAPLES, FL 34104
305-652-7717
The Thermostat Recycling Corporation’s (TRC) thermostat collection program is an industry-sponsored private corporation, originally established by thermostat manufacturers General Electric, Honeywell, and White-Rodgers. TRC facilitates the collection of all brands of used, wall-mounted mercury-switch thermostats so that the mercury can be separated and recycled. Collection through the TRC program takes place through Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) wholesale outlets, HVAC contractors, and more recently through local household hazardous waste facilities throughout the U.S
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