Protecting the public from mercury exposure: success through microexchange events.

Mercury is a growing environmental threat that can cause serious health problems and birth defects. Household thermometers are high-risk sources of mercury because most people lack the knowledge to properly dispose of one when it is broken. The Boston Public Health Commission's Environmental Health Office, with local and national partners, created the Boston Mercury Thermometer Exchange Program to address this hazard. Large central exchanges are successful, but multiple smaller targeted "microexchanges" can be another effective way to reach the general public and specific vulnerable subpopulations such as the elderly, the homebound disabled, or recent immigrants. By conducting exchanges in community health centers and public housing developments for the elderly and disabled, and by working through home health care providers, the program collected 4477 thermometers.