§ 7101. Legislative findings
The General Assembly finds and declares that:
(1) Mercury is a persistent and toxic pollutant that bioaccumulates in the environment
and poses a serious threat to humans, particularly young children and the developing
fetus, and wildlife.
(2) Recent EPA research concludes that 16 percent of American women of childbearing age
have unsafe mercury blood levels and that the annual number of newborn infants at
risk in the United States is 630,000.
(3) The primary means of human exposure to mercury is the consumption of contaminated
fish and shellfish.
(4) Vermont and all other northeastern states have issued Statewide fish consumption mercury
contamination advisories that recommend limiting or avoiding the consumption of certain
freshwater fish caught locally.
(5) While the Vermont Departments of Environmental Conservation, Fish and Wildlife, and
Health have undertaken a long-term collaboration to monitor and report on fish tissue
mercury in Vermont waters, most lakes and streams remain untested. Of the 560 lakes
and ponds tracked by the Department of Environmental Conservation, only 60 of the
largest have been monitored for fish mercury. For inland lakes, this corresponds to
51 percent of the lake acreage in Vermont. Only 22 river or stream sites have been
tested for fish mercury. This current monitoring approach is not designed to track
changes in fish mercury over time in response to management actions and does not address
mercury impacts on fish-eating wildlife.
(6) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Vermont Department of Health recommend
limiting the consumption of certain commercial saltwater fish, including canned tuna.
(7) Human exposure to mercury can result in nervous system, kidney, and liver damage and
impaired childhood development.
(8) There has been a threefold increase in mercury loading to the environment over the
past 150 years. Much of the mercury deposited from the atmosphere is from human and
natural sources, but anthropogenic emissions exceed those that occur naturally.
(9) More than one-half of the mercury deposition is from out-of-region sources, with the
largest being coal-burning power plants (utility boilers) and industrial boilers.
(10) While mercury-added switches have been eliminated from currently manufactured U.S.
and foreign manufactured motor vehicles, mercury-added switches are still prevalent
in end-of-life motor vehicles previously manufactured. Collection programs for these
vehicle switches at end-of-life of the vehicle have proven to be a feasible method
to reduce a significant source of mercury release to the region.
(11) Implementation of the 1998 New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers Mercury
Action Plan has led to a decrease in regional mercury emissions of more than 55 percent—primarily
due to emissions controls on municipal combustors and medical waste incinerators,
both of which burn discarded mercury-added products.
(12) The New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers have set an interim goal in
the Mercury Action Plan of 75 percent reduction in anthropogenic emissions by 2010.
Achieving this goal will require further reduction measures from in-region combustion
sources, such as power plants, industrial and commercial boilers, and sewage sludge
incinerators, and will require reducing mercury releases that occur through disposal
and breakage of products that contain mercury.
(13) Many of the states in the region, including Connecticut, Maine, New York, and Rhode
Island, have adopted comprehensive mercury-added product legislation to identify and
eliminate unnecessary uses of mercury.
(14) Significant use of mercury-added products occurs in health care facilities, schools,
and dental practices, in all of which mercury use or release reduction is technically
and economically feasible.
(15) The Mercury Task Force of the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian
Premiers adopted a goal to reduce dental wastewater discharges of mercury by having
50 percent of dentists install amalgam separators in each state or jurisdiction by
the end of 2005.
(16) In 1998, the Vermont General Assembly passed legislation requiring labeling of mercury-added
products and banned the disposal of these labeled products in landfills. The Agency
and municipal solid waste districts implemented numerous mercury education and reduction
programs to reduce mercury use in products and to collect spent mercury-added products
for proper recycling and disposal. Public education is essential to reducing improper
disposal of spent mercury-added products.
(17) Vermont’s mercury product legislation passed in 1998 does not comprehensively restrict
the sale and use of mercury-added products.
(18) Studies conducted for the state of Maine show that mercury-free alternatives exist
for a majority of the thousands of products containing mercury components. These products
include thermometers, thermostats, flow meters, barometers, manometers, medical devices,
and electrical switches and relays.
(19) Studies conducted for the state of Maine show that manufacturers are beginning to
market mercury-free versions of all types of mercury-added button cell and other miniature
batteries.
(20) Novelty products using mercury have been banned from sale in several states.
(21) All fluorescent lamps contain mercury and can create an immediate public health and
environmental hazard when they accidentally break during installation, use, transportation,
storage, recycling, or disposal. Light-emitting diode (LED) replacements for fluorescent
lamps do not contain any mercury.
(22) Fluorescent lamps are no longer the most energy-efficient lighting option in the marketplace.
Lamps that contain LEDs have advanced significantly and today use approximately half
the electricity as fluorescent lamps to produce the same amount of light. LEDs also
last two to three times longer than fluorescent lamps.
(23) Fluorescent lamps are no longer the least life-cycle cost (LLCC) option because they
cost twice as much to operate compared to an LED. LED retrofit tubes are the LLCC,
and they pay for the slightly higher first cost in a matter of one to eight months,
depending on price and application. After paying back initial costs, the LED tubes
continue to operate for years to come, saving consumers and businesses on their lighting
bills.
(24) LED retrofit lamps are widely available in a comprehensive set of sizes, shapes, lengths,
and light colors. There are over 10,000 models of four-foot LED retrofit tubes that
can replace fluorescent T5, T8, and T12 in the Design Lights Consortium Qualified
Product List database.
(25) Suppliers who sold fluorescent lamps in Vermont after July 1, 2012 made a profit from
the sales of those lamps in the State, and they should remain responsible for ensuring
the safe collection at the end-of-life of those lamps due to the toxic nature of the
mercury contained in the products they sold.
(26) Citizens of Vermont, the Vermont environment, and the Agency will benefit from comprehensive
mercury product legislation that further reduces mercury emissions and is consistent
with model mercury product legislation developed jointly by the northeast states. (Added 2005, No. 13, § 1; amended 2021, No. 120 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. July 1, 2022.)