Mercury Thermometer Alternatives: Promoting alternatives to mercury thermometers

Summary:

Mercury-filled thermometers have historically served numerous industries as reliable temperature standards. Increased regulation and the high cost of cleaning up mercury spills have encouraged the use of alternative types of thermometers. To support the use of alternative thermometers, the NIST Temperature and Humidity Group provides guidance documents, training, and technical consultation to other government agencies and standards-developing organizations.

Intended impact:

Replacement of mercury thermometers with suitable alternatives will reduce releases of mercury into the environment and will reduce costs incurred to clean up mercury spills.

Objectives:

To foster the replacement of mercury thermometers with suitable alternatives where feasible, and to assist users in the transition.

Technical approach:

Historically, healthcare and regulated testing laboratories have relied greatly on NIST-calibrated mercury-in-glass thermometers as stable reference standards of temperature. The use of mercury thermometers has been virtually eliminated in routine hospital use, but a wide variety of regulations and test methods continue to specify mercury thermometers.

Mercury thermometers have several intrinsic advantages:

• they are stable for long periods,
• failure is usually visually apparent, and
• they require little training or maintenance.

However, mercury is a powerful neurotoxin, and the cost of cleaning a mercury spill in industry is many thousands of dollars. Furthermore, many states restrict the sale of mercury thermometers. 

In 2008, the NIST Temperature and Humidity Group worked with several organizations to reduce or eliminate the use of mercury thermometers.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):  the EPA hosted meetings in the Spring of 2008 to discuss strategies to eliminate the use of mercury thermometers in EPA regulations and laboratories. NIST provided technical guidance documents, presentations, and technical advice as experts in temperature measurements.

Clinical Laboratory and Standards Institute (CLSI):  NIST Temperature and Humidity Group staff have worked with CLSI staff to update standards calling for the use of mercury-in-glass SRM thermometers, enabling laboratories to use other thermometer types with NIST traceability.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):  Control of temperature is critical to proper storage of vaccines, in order to preserve safety and efficacy. At CDC's invitation, the NIST Temperature and Humidity Group gave a presentation at the May, 2008 "Vaccine University" that CDC sponsors. Over 60 participants learned how traceable temperature measurement and control can be achieved with modern electronic thermometers.

These activities build on support provided in 2007 to the Food and Drug Administration (steam processing of food) and ASTM committee D2 on petroleum.

In an environment of increased regulatory and economic pressures to discontinue the use of mercury thermometers, NIST has provided timely and critically important technical advice to other federal agencies and thermometer users, ensuring that important industrial and health-care temperature measurements are performed efficiently and accurately.

Major accomplishments:

• Guidance document published on how to identify alternatives to mercury liquid-in-glass thermometers.
• Technical support provided to other government agencies and to developers of documentary standards.

Selected Publications

• Selection of Alternatives to Liquid-in-Glass Thermometers