Joseph Walls is hazardous-waste specialist at the Eagle County Household Hazardous Waste facility, located at the landfill in Wolcott. Household Hazardous Waste also accepts lots of other household items that should not be thrown in the garbage, such as aerosol cans, needles, all types of batteries, motor oil, antifreeze, corrosive materials, pool chemicals and flammable liquids. In Eagle County, you may safely dispose of all types of mercury-containing devices, fluorescent bulbs, batteries, paints and other chemicals at the Household Hazardous Waste facility at the landfill in Wolcott. When you are done with them, dispose of them properly. This is why it is so important to avoid breaking devices or spilling products that contain mercury. Mercury can be found around the home in many shapes and forms, such as thermometers, thermostats, insect and weed killers made before 1988, medicines such as mercurochrome, certain button-cell batteries, interior and exterior paints older than 1991, wood preservatives and all fluorescent lighting. That being said, we still have quite a bit of mercury around us. Over the years, we have become much more aware of the health hazards associated with mercury exposure than people were back in the 1800s. Although there is no explicit reference to his being insane, who can forget the Hatter’s poem “Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you’re at!”? In the book, there is a character called the Hatter whom we are told is mad. It is quite probable that the author Lewis Carroll knew something of the psychological effects associated with Mad Hatter syndrome, as well as the expression “mad as a hatter,” when he penned Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865. The original meaning of the phrase “mad as a hatter” is uncertain, but it became a popular expression in the 1800s to describe mental instability. In fact, nearly 2/3 of hatters in New Jersey were dead of a pulmonary disease by 30 years old. Even today, Mad Hatter syndrome is a term that appears in medical dictionaries (Stedman’s Concise Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions). If mercury poisoning wasn’t enough, New Jersey hatters in the late 19th century had another major ailment to contend with due to the extremely poor working conditions they were made to endure- tuberculosis. The word “mad” in Mad Hatter syndrome actually refers to mental instability or insanity instead of anger. The symptoms of long-term exposure were many and included trembling, loose teeth, slurred speech, memory loss, personality changes and insanity. Exposure to these vapors over long periods of time led to mercury accumulation in the hatters’ bodies.
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