Impetus gathers in US for mercury ban:

New Hampshire banned them in June, and the chain store groups Wal-Mart, CVS and Kmart have since followed suit in removing mercury thermometers from their shelves. The latest to join the move was the city of Boston, whose council last week acknowledged the environmental threat posed by mercury contamination. The average thermometer contains 0.7g of mercury, a minute amount but still enough to contaminate a lake some 10-15 acres in size. Six million mercury thermometers were sold in the US last year and 17 tons of mercury from unwanted thermometers is incinerated every year. Becton Dickinson remains the largest US manufacturer of glass and mercury thermometers, but is now tending to focus more on digital alternatives. "The trend is to get away from the mercury," company spokeswoman Bette Leogrande said.