United States: States call for removal of toxic car parts

by Danielle Knight

Washington, 3 Jul 2001 (IPS) - More than 25 state attorneys general have called on the Ford Motor Company to replace car parts containing mercury, a toxic substance that scientists have identified as a significant pollutant.

The company said it was taking action but environmentalists faulted its efforts.

As part of Ford’s ongoing recall of vehicles with defective tyres, the attorneys general urged the US-based company to replace switches that contain mercury.  These are used in hood and trunk lights and some anti-lock brakes.

Mercury is highly toxic to the nervous systems of people and wildlife and can cause severe health effects, including brain damage.

Most international auto manufacturers no longer sell cars with mercury switches, but none has implemented a plan to address mercury in cars already on the road, the attorneys general noted in a letter to Ford’s top management.

In the letter, dated Monday, the top state-level law enforcement officials said that the company’s decision to recall vehicles to replace 13 million Firestone Wilderness tyres presents a unique opportunity to institute a switch replacement programme alongside the tyre replacements.

“As part of its current recall of millions of vehicles, the company could quickly and easily replace hood and trunk light switches that pose a significant environmental hazard,” said Eliot Spitzer, attorney general of New York State.

Robyn Schultz, a Ford spokesperson, said Tuesday that the company could not comment on the letter because management had not seen it yet.

The letter argued that mercury from the light switches contaminates soil and groundwater when old vehicles are sent to junkyards and automotive recycling facilities. The scrap from old cars and trucks is melted in steel furnaces where the remaining mercury vaporizes into the air, it said.

“Such furnaces, which receive the bulk of the mercury they consume from junked vehicles, are the fourth largest source of airborne mercury emissions nationwide, after power plants, industrial boilers and incinerators,” said the letter.

The mercury switches can be easily and inexpensively replaced, it said. A common alternative to the mercury hood and trunk light switch is a ball bearing switch that costs about 38 cents, according to Spitzer.

“Given the well-documented hazards of mercury, the availability of low-cost alternatives, and the ease of replacement, I urge Ford not to let this opportunity pass by,” said Spitzer.

Schultz, with Ford, pointed out that the company planned to phase out all mercury lights by the end of 2001 and has implemented a plan to collect the mercury switches from Ford vehicles in junk yards.

“At the end of a vehicle’s life cycle, we remove the lights and dispose of them in an environmentally responsible manner,” said Schultz.

Environmentalists argued, however, that this just pushes off the issue to auto dismantling and recycling facilities. They said that the auto manufacturers themselves should take full responsibility to replace the mercury switches on vehicles currently on the road.

“Ford could show real leadership among automakers by replacing not just the tyres but also the toxic mercury,” said Dean Menke, an engineer with the Washington-based advocacy group Environmental Defense.

Menke said that if the switches were removed from recalled vehicles, this could prevent up to 2.5 tons of mercury from entering the environment.

Environmental Defense is part of a coalition of environmental organisations, known as the Clean Car Campaign, that have called for a national programme to collect up to 90% of the mercury switches now in vehicles on the road.

On Monday, the Campaign sent letters to the heads of Ford, DaimlerChrysler and General Motors, asking them to have dealers replace switches for free when vehicles come in for service.

“The plan seeks to maximize recovery of mercury by getting automakers to start with their own dealers to remove and replace the switches whenever a vehicle is serviced or recalled,” the Campaign said in a statement.

Concerns about exposure to mercury have grown in recent years. Last year, the National Academy of Sciences warned that, every year, more than 60,000 children born in the United States risk developing neurological problems ranging from learning disabilities to mental retardation because their mothers had eaten fish contaminated with the chemical.

Worries about foetal risk have led the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as many state and federal health agencies, to recommend that women of childbearing age reduce or eliminate their consumption of fish.

More than forty states have issued fish consumption advisories for mercury. New York alone has mercury warnings in place for 22 bodies of water, including five reservoirs supplying New York City.

Because mercury is an element that does not break down over time, it can be carried long distances by water and rain. The toxic substance accumulates as it moves up through the food chain. – SUNS4929

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