Heavy metals such as mercury, silver and lead are common in the academic and medical settings, but also have many common applications such as electronic equipment, thermometers, light bulbs and dental fillings. In an effort to reduce the potential for contamination of the environment due to mercury, EH&S continues to pursue opportunities to remove and replace mercury containing devices with non-mercury devices as well as establish mercury recycling programs where the continued use of mercury is necessary. As part of EH&S’s mercury campaign, CUMC campus has exchanged over 400 thermometers for alcohol-based thermometers since 2002. Over 75 thermometers have been exchanged at the Morningside campus and Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory has exchanged over 31 thermometers since 2007. All thermometer exchanges are free of charge to the laboratories.
