(March 2, 2001) A bill that would prohibit the sale of mercury thermometers was approved March 1 by the House Environment and Natural Resources committee. It will now go to the House floor.

HF274 was previously laid over by the committee to give Rep. Dan Dorman (R-Albert Lea), its author, time to resolve some questions in relation to industrial and agricultural use of mercury thermometers.

Exceptions were made in the bill for situations in which the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires the use of mercury thermometers, in specified climate control systems, and where mercury thermometers are use to calibrate other thermometers.

Mercury thermometers already in use would not be affected by the bill.

"The impact a small amount of mercury has on the environment is substantial," Rep. Jean Wagenius (DFL-Mpls) said in a previous hearing on Feb. 15. "Each thermometer contains approximately .75 to 1 gram of mercury. That's enough to call a fish advisory on a lake."

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