| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 97 12:50 WET From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Heavy Metals (Maren Hansen)
March 13, 1997
Dear Marten Hansen,
The problem with answering your question is not the lack of information but its over-abundance. If there were a particular industry that you were seeking to check for their production and prevention of heavy metals, that might be the most effective means of narrowing it. In the US, the Toxics Release Inventory database can aggregate the land/water/air discharge of individual pollutants including heavy metals such as lead and mercury and can limit
the file searched by any number of variables including geography, industry, and management method. It is not a full production picture for it only includes voluntary reporting by most manufacturing industries, and no service industries (which also have a hand in producing hazardous and toxic wastes), but it is a representative picture. You can access the TRI via the home page of the US EPA (http://www.epa.gov) and follow the choice to EPA databases, and ultimately to the TRI.
Other seminal documents on the source reduction of lead and mercury include:
Characterization of Products Containing Mercury in Municipal Solid Waste in the United States, 1970-2000 by A. T. Kearney, Inc. and Franklin Associates, Inc. to US EPA, 4/92 NTIS# PB92-162 569.
Removal and Recovery of Mercury from Contaminated Soils and Debris, by Thomas Weyand, et. al. read at Proceedings of Air Waste Management Assn 87th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, Cincinatti, OH, 6/19-24/94.
Mercury: A Resource Fact Sheet, by Paul Thomas, US EPA Region 6, 214-665-6707.
Mercury Usage and alternatives in the electrical and electronics industries, by B. M. Sass, et. al. Battelle, Columbus, OH, via NTIS #PB94-165362
Mercury: Report to Congress by US EPA (currently under review and not yet available to anyone).
Characterization of Products Containing Lead and Cadmium in Municipal Solid Waste in the United States, 1970-2000, by US EPA, 1/89, EPA # 530-SW-89-015.
I could go on at length, but try these first, then, IF NECESSARY, repost a MUCH MORE SPECIFIC request.
-- Research Library for RCRA