The palace is a silvery white liquid metal, which is easy to flow, hence the name "mercury". Mercury and its compounds are toxic. Scientists have found that mercury has obvious neurotoxicity and has adverse effects on endocrine system and immune system. Minamata disease occurred in Japan in 1950s, which shocked the world and was caused by mercury pollution. At the same time, waste batteries also contain a lot of toxic heavy metals, such as cadmium, chromium and lead, which will cause serious soil and water pollution to the environment and threaten and endanger human health through the human food chain. Even a grain of button cell will pollute 600 cubic meters of water, which is equivalent to a person's lifetime drinking water. If a battery 1 rotted in the ground, it would make the land 1 square meter useless. If you eat food made from crops containing the above pollutants, it will lead to chronic poisoning and even cancer. The mercury content of alkaline dry batteries in China is as high as 1 ~ 5% (the mercury content of neutral dry batteries is less than 0.025%), and the mercury used in the production of dry batteries in China reaches dozens of tons every year. At present, mercury-containing batteries have been eliminated in developed countries, and dry batteries have achieved low mercury and no mercury. China has also started to implement low mercury in dry batteries from this year 1. And decided to start mercury-free dry cells on June 65438+1 October1day, 2005. In order to reduce the pollution of mercury-containing batteries to the environment, in addition to mercury-free dry batteries, active measures should be taken to recycle waste batteries at this stage. At present, many cities have carried out the recycling and safe storage of used batteries. Establish a waste battery recycling network, improve the storage and transportation system of waste batteries, and ensure that the waste batteries collected by citizens can reach the right place.