Mercury - Top of the hit parade for eight years

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is the lead agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for providing support to the federal response to releases of hazardous substances in the environment. Since the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act was passed and amended, ATSDR has represented HHS on the National Response Team (NRT). The NRT role, and the subsequently established National Response System, are described in the National Contingency Plan for Oil and Hazardous Substances Releases (Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations, Section 300). As part of the National Response System, ATSDR can be called when a hazardous substance is released. Consistently, one of the most common substances ATSDR is called about is mercury, usually elemental mercury. This presentation will provide some background statistics on these calls and some general response options. Several specific cases that have occurred in the last few years will be reviewed. These reviews will deal less with remedial options than with describing common issues that arose, issues unique to the specific case, and the impact of that case on the community. A brief discussion of risk communication issues and ATSDR's response to those issues concludes the presentation.