Database Caveats & Limitations

There are a number of important caveats and limitations to consider when viewing the information in the Mercury-added Products Database:

  • The Database does not include products that were manufactured prior to the effective dates of applicable states’ laws.
  • The absence of company data from a reporting year does not necessarily indicate non-compliance. Among the possible reasons, it may indicate that a company’s information is still under review by the members of IMERC or that the company has decided not to sell their products in the states that require product notification.
  • The information may not represent the entire universe of mercury-added products because IMERC continuously receives new submissions.
  • Reported data only includes mercury that is in the product, and does not include mercury emitted during the mining and/or manufacturing process.

Advice on Searching

To correctly understand the results of your searches, consider the following:

  • Some companies have filed their notifications through a trade association. In these cases, the search result displays only those products associated with the company on which you have searched and not all of the products that were included in the trade association filing.
  • Users that want to aggregate total mercury data for a product category should note that the search results do not necessarily provide data on all of the mercury contributing to the waste stream for that product line. Because there may be filings that are still in the review process and manufacturers that have not submitted a filing, the information in the Database may not include the entire universe of those products sold in the U.S.
  • Summing the total amounts of mercury across product categories may result in double counting the same mercury. A mercury component may be reported by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), the manufacturer that purchased it and incorporated it into a larger product, and a distributor that made that product available for sale in one of the IMERC states. To address this, when IMERC analyzes and aggregates data for various product categories, the Clearinghouse only includes the information from original equipment manufacturers.
  • Manufacturing Sectors are self-identified by manufacturers as part of notification and may not always align with reported products.