Household Items That May Contain Mercury:
Thermometers - typically contain about ½ gram of this silver colored liquid (non-mercury alternatives are available)
Thermostats - inside the sealed glass "tilt switch" (not the newer electronic kind)
Automotive headlamps (ONLY the ones with the blue tint when lit)
Pilot light sensors - in SOME gas appliances such as stoves, ovens, clothes dryers, water heaters, furnaces and space heaters
Gauges - barometers, manometers, blood pressure and vacuum gauges ONLY with silver colored liquid
Electrical switches and relays - typically contains about 3.5 grams of mercury in SOME chest freezers, pre-1972 washing machines, sump pumps, electric space heaters, clothes irons, silent light switches and automatic car hood & trunk lights.
Some athletic shoes (made before 1997 ONLY) with flashing lights in soles
Vintage toys & games - toy drawing screens and mercury maze games
Fluorescent bulbs and other mercury vapor lighting - HID (high intensity discharge), metal halide, high pressure sodium and neon bulbs (environmentally preferable because they are more energy-efficient)
http://www.dep.state.ct.us/wst/mercury/hshld.htm
http://www.hermograph.com/science/mercury3.htm
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