A Study of Mercury Determination in the Waste Storage Area of Health Care Organizations in Ulaanbaatar City

Abstract

The health care organization and hospital are the major sources that release mercury into the environment. In 2009, in our previous study, we observed that 38% and 24% of the total 797 numbers of mercury containing devices used at the health care organizations were thermometers and sphygmomanometers, respectively. Therefore, it is found based on our calculation that about 13 pieces of thermometers have been broken per day in the center clinics and resulting release in 0.4-1.2 kg/year mercury intothe environmental air. We also measured the potential quantity of released mercury from 2 ng/m3 mercury vapor using a portable atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS). Each measurement in total 16 health care organizations, which we involved in the present study, was done at the following three points: the background levels, the waste storage area of clinic, the storage area for mercury device and fluorescent lamps. As a result, the average concentration of indoor mercury vapor is measured to be 213 ng/m3. However, we found that the highest concentration (2682 ng/m3) of indoor mercury vapor at the waste storage area of health care organizations. As this data compared to that of the USA ATSDR minimal risk level (MRL, 0.2 μg/m3), no significant differences (p>0.05) is observed. This observation indicates that the health care organizations are considered as the main sources of mercury indoor environmental air. Therefore, further research investigations should be focused on the improvement of mercury containing waste management at the clinics.