Euro MPs have signalled the end of traditional barometers, in a move to ban the sale of products containing mercury across the EU. The Parliament's environment committee this month rejected a bid to exclude barometers from the ban, which will also affect thermometers and blood pressure gauges. The draft law is designed to phase out the use of a substance which is both hazardous to health and the environment. Proposal COM(2006)69 has still to be approved by the full Parliament and EU ministers, however an amendment to it which supported the continuing manufacture of mercury barometers was passed by the Parliament last November, but was not supported by the Member States.
Author of the amendment, British Conservative MEP Martin Callanan said, "If you get rid of the companies manufacturing barometers then they will be forced to close, and that removes all of the expertise. So the many thousands of people up and down the country that have an existing barometer cannot get it repaired and will therefore have to throw it away which will result in more mercury entering the environment." However, British Labour MEP Linda McAvan has welcomed the ban, and stated, "Research has shown that even at low doses mercury is extremely harmful to human health. If even US states, the latest being New Hampshire, are passing laws banning mercury devices in a country where environmental issues are not usually a priority, I cannot see why the European Union should carry on allowing their production."
Once the legislation is adopted, manufacturers will have two years to switch to alternative ways of making thermometers, barometers, blood pressure gauges, marine instruments and devices such as hygrometers for measuring humidity. It will not however be illegal to own an old mercury barometer.
