Has anyone else noticed that Murcury-free batteries have a shorter life?

[zanzibuz]

I have always used Walgreens hearing aid batteries. They're easy for me to buy locally, and every once in a while they have two for one sales which make their price quite reasonable. I've noticed the packaging in the last few months claim that they're now Mercury-free. At the same time, I've noticed that I'm getting about two days less life out of each battery.

Has anyone else noticed this?

[seb]

I've noticed the same 2 days less life from the batteries. It's like when they reformulated the gasoline and you got less mileage than the old gas, which caused you to buy and burn more gas, but in the minds of the environmentalist it was ok because each gallon was cleaner than it used to be. With the batteries we will use more batteries adding to the landfills but they won't have any mercury in them, so the mercury that is naturally in the soil ( at least in California) won't get additional help from HA batteries in polluting the landfills. You gotta love the environmentalist who can't see the forest though the trees!

[zanzibuz]

I've noticed the same 2 days less life from the batteries. It's like when they reformulated the gasoline and you got less mileage than the old gas, which caused you to buy and burn more gas, but in the minds of the environmentalist it was ok because each gallon was cleaner than it used to be. With the batteries we will use more batteries adding to the landfills but they won't have any mercury in them, so the mercury that is naturally in the soil ( at least in California) won't get additional help from HA batteries in polluting the landfills. You gotta love the environmentalist who can't see the forest though the trees!

I don't think you should blame "environmentalists" at all, they're working for the benefit of all people. I, for one, am glad to have less mercury in my life, even if it means I pay a little more. Sure, I'm annoyed that my batteries die earlier, but that's less annoying than polluted groundwater!

[DFPope]

So, getting rid of mecury in HA batteries will help the environment, yet we will soon be forced to buy CF lamps which contain mecury. Government idiocracy at its finest.
I am buying up enough mercury containing batteries to last at least a couple of years.

[seb]

Zanzibuz
Last time I looked mercury was a natural element It pollutes most ground water from it leaching out of rocks into the water, not from HA batteries. The Earth has a finite amount of mercury and we aren't artificially making any more. Like I said " the environmentalist can't see the forest though the trees!"

[DFPope]

Zanzibuz
Last time I looked mercury was a natural element It pollutes most ground water from it leaching out of rocks into the water, not from HA batteries. The Earth has a finite amount of mercury and we aren't artificially making any more. Like I said " the environmentalist can't see the forest though the trees!"

SEB
Well Said !!!
IMO its another regulation, as so many are, that is about politics and money, nothing else.

[seb]

DFPope,
If you want another insane regulation, In the San Jose area on 1/1/12 it will be illegal for any business to give you a plastic bag with any purchase and they have to charge you 10 cents for a paper bag if you don't have your own bag with you. I want to hang out at Home Depot on 1/1/12, to see what they are going to do for the customer with 40 or 50 items and no bags! They aren't planning on having any paper bags either! Chalk up another one to the whacko loon environmentalist who figure outlawing plastic bags is better than working with the manufacturer to come up with a bag that rapidly decays away to nothing. What the whacko loons don't seem to realize is with their actions they are forcing companies to speed up outsourcing and shipping jobs out of the US to countries that don't care if they harm the environment; such as shipping tv's and decommissioned ships to Bangladesh to be taken apart and recycled ( they do it right on the beaches dumping all kinds of pollutants into the water). Hey but as the environmentalist see it the products are being recycled and not going to landfills. They can't see the forest though the trees!

[Evil Scientist]

Mercury is a toxin. Never forget that. Not only in ground water, but it also releases vapours that you can be exposed to be inhilation.

Yes, Mercury is a natural element. Yes there is a finite amount on Earth. The problem of batteries and other mercury containing items is CONCENTRATION. Which ends up being a lot higher than you would ever see in nature when you start dumping batteries in the ground. So the problem isn't that you can't see the forest for the trees...the problem is you are dumping the trees all in one place...redistributing the forest in an unhealthy way for the little forest creatures (US).

As to the "bag tax". I think it is a darn good idea! It helps communities reduce their waste streams and offsets the cost of recycling all those bags. It a great way for communities to focus those charges on the people using those services. How hard is it to keep a reusable bag in your trunk for when you go to Home Depot? Our county in Maryland is instituting the same rule in the New Year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all.

Evil.

[Um bongo]

We already have the bag tax here. You just end up buying lots of reusable ones.

[seb]

Evil,
What concentrations of mercury are we talking about in HA batteries? Most garbage companies have recycling programs for batteries in place to keep batteries from ending up in the landfills. I would have to guess that mercury in HA batteries is in much smaller quantities than is in the average adults mouth from their fillings in their teeth( which leaches out over time), yet when are the environmentalist going to go after this possible pollution source? Also, what about all the mercury in CF lamps? Another problem with mercury free batteries, if they last 2 days shorter than the mercury batteries they are replacing than that means we will be buying more batteries and adding more to the landfills, for me that will be 8 more batteries a year. So, perhaps what we need is a program like the bag ban, except with this ban you can't buy new HA batteries with mercury until you bring back the same number of used batteries you plan on buying, if you don't bring batteries back you can only buy the mercury free ones. Bags, batteries, fillings in teeth, where do we draw the line? Given the environmentalist mentality they won't be happy until we go back to horse and buggies( although we will have to figure out how to get rid of the methane produced by the horses!) and lighting with candles. By the way have you given thought to airplanes as being the culprit of global warming since they are dumping all their exhaust at altitudes of 5-8 miles up? Also, as for concentration of mercury being higher in HA batteries than nature don't go near any water in close proximity to past volcanic or cinnibar mining activity the concentration levels will be off the charts.

[Evil Scientist]

Hmm....

There is a reason they stopped using mercury in filings amalgum, years and years ago. These mostly use ceramic now.

CF light bulbs and other fluorescent lights are actively recycled by most governments and companies and therefore don't end up in landfills. As these bulbs are vacuum sealed, under these conditions, contamination from these bulbs is limited and controlled.

You are correct that batteries are often recycled. However, non-mercury containing batteries can go into regular trash (as can current alkaline batteries) where mercury containing batteries are treated as household hazardous waste, which is more expensive to dispose of.

As to the rest...a battery exchange program sounds interesting...though there are currently non-profit organizations that collect batteries for recycling through retail stores selling batteries. These batteries stay out of landfills and are recycled for the heavy metals within. However, in the long run, mercury free batteries save money as a seperate waste stream is unnecessary.

I agree that "radical" environmentalists go a bit over the edge. And your point about airplanes is accurate, they are a major source of air pollution, but this has nothing to do with mercury. However, to that topic, is it really all that bad to worry about the enviornment we live in? I believe the key is balance. Keep the conveniences we need, but find ways to supply them in a renewable clean way. That'll take time. There are no quick fixes. Mercury-free batteries are a good place to start.

As to your final point...that's very sound advice. Not very much lives around those sorts of places. Perhaps an example of why we shouldn't put mercury in landfills.