A Suceava man who had two mercury thermometers called the Emergency Inspectorate, the Public Health Office, the prefecture and even the National Environmental Protection Agency in Bucharest to ask how he could legally get rid of them. In the end, they answered that he should have used a specialized sanitary service authorized for hazardous waste, but there is no such authorized service in Suceava. The Criminal Code threatens imprisonment for a term of 2 to 7 years for the storage and circulation of toxic products or substances.

“In the 1950s, my parents bought a medical thermometer. It was taken out of service a few years ago because the back of the thermometer was broken. There is a risk of rupture of the capillary, which will lead to contamination of the house. In the meantime, I had another Russian thermometer, not a medical one, at the TPP, in good working order until it partially broke. I have been trying to solve the problem of taking grams of poisonous mercury for several days. I called several places but to no avail. The problem turned out to be a tough one,” a resident of Suceava told Monitorul de Suceava.

Aware of the dangers of mercury, he kept two faulty thermometers in cardboard tubes outside the house, in a well-ventilated shed, on which he wrote: “Caution, mercury! Toxic”.

Then he looked for a company that collects toxic waste in Suceava. He couldn’t find it and called the National Environmental Protection Agency in Bucharest, where a clerk told him she would look for a solution and get back. I looked for him the next day with recommendations: to look for a sanitation operator, to contact the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the local administration.

“I called the environmental protection department again, but this time to the local department,” said the woman from Suchavchan. From here he was suggested to look for a specialized nurse. “At Demeco Bacău they said they don’t collect such garbage, at Setcar Brăila, which disposes of waste, no one answered.”

The next step was the ISU challenge.

“The officer on duty said that unless it’s a threat, they don’t have the authority to intervene and they don’t collect hazardous materials.”

No sanitary company has a permit to remove hazardous waste in Suceava

The head of the sanitation company Ritmic Suceava, Kostel Corneanu, said that in the county of Suceava, no sanitation company has a permit for hazardous waste, and immediately pointed to a specialized company from Bacău.

Monitorul de Suceava called the concerned company, Igiena Serv SRL, and the call center operator, Leonard Mihai, said that the thermometers can be collected from the owner at any time, regardless of location, at a price of: 190 lei/piece, plus VAT.

Thus, to get rid of the two thermometers, it would cost our Sucean about 400 lei.

“This is money that I don’t have right now. I have a child that I support through college. When I am financially stronger, I will call the company in Bacau and solve the problem,” said the man.

Finally, after two days of countless phone calls, with the help of the President of the College of Pharmacists – Suceava branch, Doinita Kokrish, the newspaper found an independent pharmacy authorized to accept hazardous waste, which agreed to safely store the two mercury thermometers until the law enforcement regulations regarding the waste disposal regime, published in the Official Gazette in January 2023.

A new law from 2023 on the reception and storage of dangerous substances in the medical field is in effect in pharmacies, but it does not yet have application rules.

Police: “Simply possessing a mercury thermometer is a crime”

The head of the Weapons, Explosives and Dangerous Substances Service, Chief Commissioner Gabriel Gheorghe Panziru, told Monitorul de Suceava that since 2014, “ordinary possession of a mercury thermometer is a crime” under Art. 359 of the Criminal Code.

Persons found to be storing or transporting mercury will be prosecuted for storing and trading in toxic products or substances.

This crime is punishable by imprisonment for a term of 2 to 7 years.

Therefore, if a man from Suceava turned to the police with two thermometers, the police would open a criminal case for possession of dangerous substances. In addition, according to the “polluter pays” principle, a person would be obliged to pay the costs of disposal of harmful waste.

In 2022, a woman from Ploiesti was charged with a criminal case for dealing in toxic products or substances after the woman told authorities that she had broken a mercury thermometer in her home, realitaideprahova.net reported.