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December 2003, Vol 93, No. 12 | American Journal of Public Health 1997-1999
© 2003 American Public Health Association

FIELD ACTION REPORT

Protecting the Public From Mercury Exposure: Success Through Microexchange Events

Paul A. Shoemaker, MPH and Jalal Ghaemghami, PhD

The authors are with the Environmental Health Office, Boston Public Health Commission, Boston, Mass.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Paul A. Shoemaker, MPH, Environmental Health Office, Boston Public Health Commission, 1010 Massachusetts Ave, 2nd Floor, Boston, MA 02118 (e-mail: paul_shoemaker{at}bphc.org).

Mercury is a growing environmental threat that can cause serious health problems and birth defects. Household thermometers are high-risk sources of mercury because most people lack the knowledge to properly dispose of one when it is broken. The Boston Public Health Commission’s Environmental Health Office, with local and national partners, created the Boston Mercury Thermometer Exchange Program to address this hazard.

Large central exchanges are successful, but multiple smaller targeted "microexchanges" can be another effective way to reach the general public and specific vulnerable subpopulations such as the elderly, the homebound disabled, or recent immigrants. By conducting exchanges in community health centers and public housing developments for the elderly and disabled, and by working through home health care providers, the program collected 4477 thermometers.






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