State Mercury-Added Product Notification & Labeling - An Overview

Throughout this document, there is text that is underlined and highlighted in green; this indicates that the material is hyperlinked to other web pages that provide additional information and guidance on that topic.

This Guidance Document is designed to help manufacturers, importers and distributors of mercury-added products understand how to comply with Labeling and Notification requirements in Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington State.

Information on these state specific mercury requirements is available at the following websites:

Connecticut - http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2708&q=324028&depNav_GID=1638
Louisiana - http://www.deq.louisiana.gov/portal/tabid/287/Default.aspx
Maine - http://www.state.me.us/dep/mercury/legreg.htm
Massachusetts - http://www.mass.gov/dep/toxics/stypes/hgres.htm
Minnesota - http://www.mass.gov/dep/toxics/stypes/hgres.htm
New Hampshire - http://www.des.state.nh.us/nhppp/Mercury/default.asp?link=leg
New York - http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8512.html
North Carolina - http://www.wastenotnc.org/mercury_switch.htm
Rhode Island - http://www.dem.ri.gov/topics/mercury.htm
Vermont - http://www.mercvt.org
Washington - http://www.ecy.wa.gov/mercury/

For more information on IMERC member state mercury products legislation see: www.newmoa.org/prevention/mercury/modelleg.cfm.

The participating states are coordinating these mercury reduction initiatives through the Interstate Mercury Education and Reduction Clearinghouse (IMERC) in order to:

promote consistency among the states in implementing labeling and notification requirements; and
provide a single point of contact for manufacturers

What is a Mercury-added Product?

A mercury-added product is a product, a commodity, a chemical, a product with one or more components, or a product that cannot function without the use of that component, that contains mercury or a mercury compound intentionally added to the product, commodity, chemical, or component in order to provide a specific characteristic, appearance, or quality, or to perform a specific function, or for any other reason. These products include formulated mercury-added products and fabricated mercury-added products.

A fabricated mercury-added product is a combination of individual components, one or more of which has mercury added, that combine to make a single unit.

A formulated mercury-added product is a chemical product, including but not limited to laboratory chemicals, cleaning products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and coating materials that are sold as a consistent mixture of chemicals.

What are IMERC-Member State Mercury-added Product Labeling & Notification Requirements?

Labeling Products and Packaging
Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington State prohibit the sale of mercury-added products unless they have a label to:

Inform consumers at the point of purchase that the product contains mercury and may require special handling at end of life; and
Identify the products at the point of disposal so that they can be kept out of the trash and recycled.

Vermont was the first state in the Northeast to enact a labeling law. Vermont is the only state that requires a labeling plan to be filed. All other states will obtain the labeling information they need from Vermont. A labeling plan approved in Vermont probably will meet the labeling requirements in other Northeast states, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Washington State. If you manufacture mercury-added products for sale in Vermont, you must file a Certified Labeling Plan with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. Forms for this purpose can be downloaded at http://www.mercvt.org/label/forms.htm. The labeling plan identifies the mercury-added products and describes how the manufacturer intends to comply with labeling requirements.

Notification on Mercury Content of Products
If you manufacture, sell, distribute, or import a mercury-added product that you wish to sell in the states of Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina¹, Rhode Island, and Vermont you must file a Mercury-added Product Notification Form through IMERC or directly with each individual state. Once the Form is submitted to IMERC, it is reviewed by a multi-state review group that is appointed by the Commissioners or Directors of the states' environmental agencies. The submission and approval of the Mercury-added Product Notification Forms through IMERC enables manufacturers, distributors, and their trade representatives to comply with the requirement of all of the states listed above that have the Notification requirement in their state laws.

Following approval of the submission, the information from the Forms is entered into a "Mercury-added Products Database" and sent out to the reporting organization for review and concurrence. The information is posted on the IMERC webpage following this review. Mercury-added Product Notification Forms that have not been approved are not included in this database. All hard copy Forms that are submitted to IMERC are available to the public.

What is the Purpose of Mercury-added Product Notification?

"Product Notification" requirements are intended to inform consumers, recyclers, policy makers, and others about:

products that contain intentionally-added mercury;
the amount of mercury in a specific product; and
the total amount of mercury in the specific products that were sold in the US in a given year.

How Can You Get More Information?

If after reviewing this guidance, you have any questions or concerns, contact:

Adam Wienert, IMERC, (617) 367-8558 x307,

¹ The product notification requirements in North Carolina apply to automobiles, only.

Last Modified 12/20/2007