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Major Initiatives:

Building on IDEM’s efforts to improve the environmental performance in the healthcare industry, IKE partnered with IDEM, the Regional Household Hazardous Waste Task Force and others to get hospitals, medical clinics and nursing homes to reduce their dependence on mercury.

Recognizing the importance of getting mercury out of the wastestream, Odgen Martin donated $2000 to IKE to support the project.

The goal was to get healthcare facilities to take Healthcare Without Harm’s Making Medicine Mercury Free Pledge and participate in the state’s Mercury Awareness Program.  For details on the pledge click here.

Next time you visit your doctor, ask about your doctor about taking the use of mercury, and check out the blood pressure monitor to see if it contains mercury.

If your doctor says they can handle a spill, check out Indiana’s Mercury Spill Cleanup Procedures and show her that prevention is easier — and less costly — than cleanup.

• It was possible to swap mercury thermometers for new digital thermometers at Earth Day Indiana’s festival in Indianapolis in April.  Eli Lilly and Company and Cinergy donated 5000 digital thermometers.
• Does your school know where its mercury is? Probably not. Students playing with mercury in 1999 in Gary, IN, resulted in a $60,000 cleanup bill last year. A similar incident occurred in Johnson County. Get your school to take IDEM’s Mercury Pledge Program for Schools. IDEM will help the school find out where the mercury is and how to get it recycled.
• Make sure your heating/air conditioning contractor has taken the IDEM’s Thermostat Reduction and Recycling Pledge.