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Batteries to be regulated

From September, the manufacture, importation and sale of zinc manganese and non-button cell alkaline manganese batteries with a mercury content exceeding 5 parts per million (ppm) is to be prohibited, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) announced yesterday.

Anyone found manufacturing or importing non-compliant batteries will be subject to fines ranging from NT$60,000 (US$1,847) to NT$300,000, with NT$1,200 to NT$6,000 penalties for their sale.

Tests carried out last year by the EPA showed that the mercury levels of around 10 percent of dry cell batteries on the market exceeded 5 ppm, and that some batteries imported from China had mercury levels as high as 848 times that level. The EPA estimates that 1.47 percent of batteries on the market, or 117 tonnes annually, have an excessively high mercury content.

A draft amendment to Article 21 of the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法) requires "the restriction of manufacturing, import, sales and use" of the batteries.

Although the new restrictions are due to take effect in September, strict requirements for the inclusion of a battery's mercury content on its casing will only come into effect in December.

According to the EPA, it is possible to produce cylindrical zinc-manganese and alkaline-manganese batteries without using mercury. However, at present there are no substitution technologies mature enough to produce button cell mercuric oxide, silver oxide, zinc-air or alkaline-manganese varieties.
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