Support a Ban On U.S. Mercury Exports

The United States should take strong measures against global mercury contamination by adopting a ban on the export of surplus mercury to the world market. The U.S. Department of Defense recognized the dangers of mercury to health and the environment when it voluntarily took its own excess mercury supply off of the market and placed it into long-term storage. The Department of Energy, another U.S. agency with large mercury reserves, has recently adopted a similar policy. The U.S. government must also ban the export of surplus mercury from private industrial uses of mercury as they are phased out.

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