Mercury

Items containing mercury can be brought to the Highway Department, 70 Elm St., on Mondays from 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., holidays excluded. All materials to be dropped off, including fluorescent light bulbs, thermometers, manometers, gauges, and thermostats, must be checked in by highway personnel. Large quantities of mercury are subject to inspection by the Highway Department supervisor or superintendent before they can be considered for disposal. - Michele Bolton

Q. I've heard that mackerel is abundant and low in mercury. How do you suggest I prepare it? A. Mackerel is indeed plentiful, so it is a good choice from an ecological standpoint. The fish is also rich in omega-3 fatty acids, selenium, niacin, and vitamins B6 and B12. But only one type, Atlantic mackerel, contains low levels of mercury. Another kind, king mackerel, has almost 15 times as much mercury – it's best avoided, especially by children and women of childbearing age. When shopping for Atlantic mackerel, keep in mind that it's also called Northern mackerel and...

The town is continuing its efforts to collect mercury, which can be dangerous if not managed properly. Under the mercury recovery program, thermostats, thermometers, mercury switches, button cell batteries, and fluorescent bulbs under 2 feet in length may be brought to the Marblehead Board of Health office in the Mary A. Alley Municipal Building, 7 Widger Road. The office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday; and 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Friday.

MASSACHUSETTS CAN no longer afford to be put at risk by unrestrained pollution from coal-fired power plants. The new rules proposed by the EPA are historic steps to help keep our state carbon and mercury free. The effects of burning coal have severe impacts in Massachusetts: according to the Clean Air Task Force, there were more than 200 deaths related to coal plants in the Commonwealth in 2010. Despite the claim of John Sununu that regulating mercury and carbon emissions will harm our economy, this is just not the case.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA is about to embark on its hottest mission ever, to Mercury. The Messenger spacecraft, scheduled to be launched next Monday, will be blasted by up to 840-degree heat as it orbits the tiny planet closest to the sun -- so close that it would be as though 11 suns were beating down on Earth. Remarkably, the only thing between the probe's room-temperature science instruments and the blistering sun and pizza-oven heat will be a handmade ceramic-cloth quilt just a quarter-inch thick.

Tamika Catchings ripped the ball out of the air after Detroit’s final miss and Indiana’s players jumped into each other’s arms. Finally, the Fever will play for a championship. The Fever advanced to the WNBA finals for the first time, beating the defending champion Shock, 72-67, last night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals in Indianapolis. “Finally!’’ Catchings said. “I’ve been waiting for this for eight years. I don’t want to get too excited. I want to finish it off.’’ The Fever, who were eliminated by the Shock the last three seasons, open the...

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent Satuit Hardware has become the latest environmental partner for the South Shore Recycling Cooperative, which asked the hardware store to accept more recyclable materials. According to Phil Rose, the manager of the store, staffers have been collecting old light bulbs for years, and have recycled those at the transfer station while helping customers purchase new ones at the store. "It was something we start to help people out," Rose said.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will consider throwing out an $18 million penalty against Texas-based Southern Union Co. for illegally storing mercury in Rhode Island. The justices said they will hear the natural gas company's appeal of the criminal penalty imposed by a federal judge and upheld by an appeals court. Southern Union had used a building in Pawtucket to store outdated mercury-sealed gas regulators it removed from customers' homes. The mercury was initially removed and shipped to a recycling center.

Northern New Englanders awoke to bone-chilling temperatures Monday with the mercury falling to well below zero across much of the region. The National Weather Service said some of the cold spots in Maine at 6 a.m. were Fryeburg, which was minus 20, and Sanford, where the temperature was 13 below zero. In New Hampshire, the temperature was minus 18 in Berlin and minus 14 in Whitefield. And in Vermont, the temperature in Montpelier and St. Johnsbury was 15 below zero at 6 a.m.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A US mining company admitted yesterday that it released tons of mercury into the air and water over a period of years at one of its Indonesian gold mines but denied that it had any health impact on people. The acknowledgment by Newmont Mining Corp. is the latest setback for the company in its six-month battle to defend against pollution allegations. Indonesian police have accused its local subsidiary, Newmont Minahasa Raya, of dumping heavy metals into Buyat Bay, causing residents to develop skin diseases and tumors.

Items containing mercury can be brought to the Highway Department, 70 Elm St., on Mondays from 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., holidays excluded. All materials to be dropped off, including fluorescent light bulbs, thermometers, manometers, gauges, and thermostats, must be checked in by highway personnel. Large quantities of mercury are subject to inspection by the Highway Department supervisor or superintendent before they can be considered for disposal. - Michele Bolton

John Glenn joined the proud, surviving veterans of NASA's Project Mercury on Saturday in celebrating the 50th anniversary of his historic orbital flight. The first American to orbit the Earth thanked the approximately 125 retired Mercury workers, now in their 70s and 80s, who gathered with their spouses at Kennedy Space Center to swap stories, pose for pictures and take a bow. "There are a lot more bald heads and gray heads in that group than others, but those are the people who did lay the foundation," the 90-year-old Glenn said at an evening ceremony attended by NASA...

IT WAS almost by accident in 2003 that David Evers fully grasped how mercury permeates and pummels the bird world. He and colleagues from the Biodiversity Research Institute were researching the Nyanza Superfund site — once home to textile dye operations — on the Sudbury River in Ashland. Evers, the executive director of the Maine-based institute, was trying to net belted kingfishers to see how much mercury was absorbed in their blood by eating fish. During the netting, two red-winged blackbirds, which eat seeds and insects, were trapped.

Project Mercury (1959-1963) was the first manned American spaceflight program. With the success of its Mercury-Atlas 6 flight on February 20, 1962 the project achieved its goal of putting an American astronaut (John Glenn) into orbit around the earth. The Atlantic: The Historic Flight of Mercury 6 www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/02/the-historic-flight-of-mercury-6/100012/ See what the Mercury spaceflight program looked like by scrolling through this huge collection of large high-resolution full color and black-and-white photographs from the Atlantic magazine.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent Satuit Hardware has become the latest environmental partner for the South Shore Recycling Cooperative, which asked the hardware store to accept more recyclable materials. According to Phil Rose, the manager of the store, staffers have been collecting old light bulbs for years, and have recycled those at the transfer station while helping customers purchase new ones at the store. "It was something we start to help people out," Rose said.

Northern New Englanders awoke to bone-chilling temperatures Monday with the mercury falling to well below zero across much of the region. The National Weather Service said some of the cold spots in Maine at 6 a.m. were Fryeburg, which was minus 20, and Sanford, where the temperature was 13 below zero. In New Hampshire, the temperature was minus 18 in Berlin and minus 14 in Whitefield. And in Vermont, the temperature in Montpelier and St. Johnsbury was 15 below zero at 6 a.m.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Stargazers will get a rare triple planetary treat this weekend with Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars appearing to nestle together in the predawn skies. About 45 minutes before dawn tomorrow those three planets will appear so close that the average person's thumb could obscure all three from view. They will look almost as close together today and Monday, but tomorrow they will be within one degree of each other in the sky. Three planets haven't been that close since 1925, said Miami Space Transit Planetarium director Jack Horkheimer.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is encouraging the Legislature to take a closer look at the cost of so-called take-back programs aimed at ensuring proper disposal of mercury-containing compact fluorescent lights, batteries and electronic waste. The DEP says it has cost more than $2.5 million over the last decade to remove about 400 pounds of mercury from the environment. That's about $6,000 per pound. The agency says 112 pounds of mercury has been recovered in Maine from vehicle switches, 264 pounds from thermostats and 32 pounds from light bulbs over 10 years.

Mercury Computer Systems advanced on the first trading day after the Chelmsford company revealed it had agreed to acquire KOR Electronics Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary Paragon Dynamics Inc. KOR develops digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) units for electronic warfare applications. Paragon provides analytic services and custom data fusion solutions for the intelligence community. KOR will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercury for a $70 million purchase price. Mercury makes integrated subsystems for defense contractors.