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Residential Mercury Spills from Gas Regulators

Many older homes are equipped with mercury-containing gas regulators that reduce the pressure of natural gas in the mains to the low pressure used in home gas piping. Removal of these regulators can result in elemental mercury spills inside the home. In the summer of 2000, mercury spills were discov...

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Autores principales: Hryhorczuk, Daniel, Persky, Victoria, Piorkowski, Julie, Davis, Jennifer, Moomey, C. Michael, Krantz, Anne, Runkle, Ken D., Saxer, Tiffanie, Baughman, Thomas, McCann, Ken
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 2006
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1480493/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16759983
http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.8401
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author Hryhorczuk, Daniel
Persky, Victoria
Piorkowski, Julie
Davis, Jennifer
Moomey, C. Michael
Krantz, Anne
Runkle, Ken D.
Saxer, Tiffanie
Baughman, Thomas
McCann, Ken
author_facet Hryhorczuk, Daniel
Persky, Victoria
Piorkowski, Julie
Davis, Jennifer
Moomey, C. Michael
Krantz, Anne
Runkle, Ken D.
Saxer, Tiffanie
Baughman, Thomas
McCann, Ken
author_sort Hryhorczuk, Daniel
collection PubMed
description Many older homes are equipped with mercury-containing gas regulators that reduce the pressure of natural gas in the mains to the low pressure used in home gas piping. Removal of these regulators can result in elemental mercury spills inside the home. In the summer of 2000, mercury spills were discovered in the basements of several Chicago-area homes after removal of gas regulators by gas company contractors. Subsequent inspections of approximately 361,000 homes by two northern Illinois gas companies showed that 1,363 homes had residential mercury contamination. Urine mercury screening was offered to concerned residents, and results of urine bioassays and indoor mercury air measurements were available for 171 homes. Six of these 171 homes (3.5%) had a cumulative total of nine residents with a urine mercury ≥ 10 μg/L. The highest urine mercury concentration observed in a resident was 26 μg/L. Positive bioassays were most strongly associated with mercury air concentrations > 10 μg/m(3) on the first floor [odds ratio (OR) = 21.4; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.6–125.9] rather than in the basement (OR = 3.0; 95% CI, 0.3–26), and first-floor air samples were more predictive of positive bioassays than were basement samples. Overall, the risk of residential mercury contamination after gas regulator removal ranged from 0.9/1,000 to 4.3/1,000 homes, depending on the gas company, although the risk was considerably higher (20 of 120 homes, 16.7%) for one of the contractors performing removal work for one of the gas companies. Gas companies, their contractors, and residents should be aware of these risks and should take appropriate actions to prevent these spills from occurring and remediate them if they occur.
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spelling pubmed-14804932006-06-29 Residential Mercury Spills from Gas Regulators Hryhorczuk, Daniel Persky, Victoria Piorkowski, Julie Davis, Jennifer Moomey, C. Michael Krantz, Anne Runkle, Ken D. Saxer, Tiffanie Baughman, Thomas McCann, Ken Environ Health Perspect Research Many older homes are equipped with mercury-containing gas regulators that reduce the pressure of natural gas in the mains to the low pressure used in home gas piping. Removal of these regulators can result in elemental mercury spills inside the home. In the summer of 2000, mercury spills were discovered in the basements of several Chicago-area homes after removal of gas regulators by gas company contractors. Subsequent inspections of approximately 361,000 homes by two northern Illinois gas companies showed that 1,363 homes had residential mercury contamination. Urine mercury screening was offered to concerned residents, and results of urine bioassays and indoor mercury air measurements were available for 171 homes. Six of these 171 homes (3.5%) had a cumulative total of nine residents with a urine mercury ≥ 10 μg/L. The highest urine mercury concentration observed in a resident was 26 μg/L. Positive bioassays were most strongly associated with mercury air concentrations > 10 μg/m(3) on the first floor [odds ratio (OR) = 21.4; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.6–125.9] rather than in the basement (OR = 3.0; 95% CI, 0.3–26), and first-floor air samples were more predictive of positive bioassays than were basement samples. Overall, the risk of residential mercury contamination after gas regulator removal ranged from 0.9/1,000 to 4.3/1,000 homes, depending on the gas company, although the risk was considerably higher (20 of 120 homes, 16.7%) for one of the contractors performing removal work for one of the gas companies. Gas companies, their contractors, and residents should be aware of these risks and should take appropriate actions to prevent these spills from occurring and remediate them if they occur. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 2006-06 2006-02-27 /pmc/articles/PMC1480493/ /pubmed/16759983 http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.8401 Text en http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ Publication of EHP lies in the public domain and is therefore without copyright. All text from EHP may be reprinted freely. Use of materials published in EHP should be acknowledged (for example, ?Reproduced with permission from Environmental Health Perspectives?); pertinent reference information should be provided for the article from which the material was reproduced. Articles from EHP, especially the News section, may contain photographs or illustrations copyrighted by other commercial organizations or individuals that may not be used without obtaining prior approval from the holder of the copyright.
spellingShingle Research
Hryhorczuk, Daniel
Persky, Victoria
Piorkowski, Julie
Davis, Jennifer
Moomey, C. Michael
Krantz, Anne
Runkle, Ken D.
Saxer, Tiffanie
Baughman, Thomas
McCann, Ken
Residential Mercury Spills from Gas Regulators
title Residential Mercury Spills from Gas Regulators
title_full Residential Mercury Spills from Gas Regulators
title_fullStr Residential Mercury Spills from Gas Regulators
title_full_unstemmed Residential Mercury Spills from Gas Regulators
title_short Residential Mercury Spills from Gas Regulators
title_sort residential mercury spills from gas regulators
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1480493/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16759983
http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.8401
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