MRp3: PBT Source Reduction - Mercury

Required

Intent

To reduce mercury-containing products and devices and mercury release through product substitution, capture, and recycling.

Requirements

As part of the project’s recycling collection system, identify the following:

• types of mercury-containing products and devices to be collected;
• criteria governing how they are to be handled by a recycling program; and
• disposal methods for captured mercury.

Applicable mercury-containing products and devices include, but are not limited to, lamps (such as linear and circular fluorescents, integrally ballasted and nonintegrally ballasted compact fluorescents and HIDs) and dental wastes (such as scrap amalgam, chair side traps, and separator wastes).

In facilities delivering dental care, specify and install amalgam separation devices that meet or exceed the ISO-11143 standard.

Comply with the mercury elimination requirements outlined below, from the 2010 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities, Section A1.3- 4b, Mercury Elimination.

• 4.2.1.1. New construction: healthcare facilities may not use mercury-containing equipment, including thermostats, switching devices, and other building system sources. Lamps are excluded.
• 4.2.1.2. Renovation: healthcare facilities must develop a plan to phase out mercury-containing products and upgrade current mercury-containing lamps to high-efficiency, low-mercury, or mercury-free lamp technology.

Do not specify or install preheat, T-9, T-10, or T-12 fluorescents or mercury vapor high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps in the project. Do not specify probe-start metal halide HID lamps in any interior spaces.

Specify and install illuminated exit signs that do not contain mercury and use less than 5 watts of electricity.

Fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lamps must meet the criteria in Table 1.

Table 1. Maximum mercury content of lamps

Lamp	Maximum content
T-8 fluorescent, eight-foot	10 mg mercury
T-8 fluorescent, four-foot	3.5 mg mercury
T-8 fluorescent, U-bent	6 mg mercury
T-5 fluorescent, linear	2.5 mg mercury
T-5 fluorescent, circular	9 mg mercury
Compact fluorescent, nonintegral ballast	3.5 mg mercury
Compact fluorescent, integral ballast	3.5 mg mercury, ENERGY STAR qualified
High-pressure sodium, up to 400 watts	10 mg mercury
High-pressure sodium, above 400 watts	32 mg mercury

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