COUNTERMEASURES FOR MERCURY PROBLEMS AND TEMPORAL CHANGE OF WASTE BATTERY AND FLUORESCENT LAMP IN FUKUOKA CITY, JAPAN

摘要

Mercury is being discharged from various sources to the environment, causing much concern in regard to global-scale environmental pollution and damage to human health. Especially in Japan, "Minamata disease" has occurred as one of the typical pollution-related problem caused by effluent containing methyl-mercury from chemical plants since 1956. In the early 1980s, mercury pollution caused by discarded dry cell batteries and the necessary recovery of used dry cells has become major social issues. As a result of the instruction of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to reduce the total amount of mercury used for dry cells and to further strengthen the ongoing voluntary collection of used mercury cells in 1983, manganese cells and alkaline cells without mercury were successfully developed in 1991 and 1992 respectively.