Mitigating the mercury menace.

• Position: Stateline - Mercury switches, junkyard cars - Brief Article

Maine has rescued at least 16,896 mercury switches from junked cars since the state approved the nation's first mandatory switch recycling program two years ago, according to the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Maine legislators created the recycling program that asks junkyards to remove the switches, then charges auto manufacturers $1 per switch to fund the program. The switches, tiny vials of metal or glass containing a single bead of mercury...