Contact Amalgam has been in contact with the patient and includes:

• teeth containing amalgam from patient/extractions,
• scrap amalgam from patient/old fillings, chair-side traps, screens, and
• amalgam sludge from vacuum pump filters and other amalgam capture device.

Recommended Practices for Contact Amalgam:

• Always use personal protective equipment (gloves) when handling contact amalgam.
• Render teeth containing amalgam noninfectious by chemical means.
• Store amalgam wastes in separate airtight containers labeled "extracted teeth".
• Clean or replace screens, traps, or filters on a regular basis.
• Clean screens, traps, and filters before cleaning vacuum lines.
• Recycle all waste amalgam.

• Don't place any kind of amalgam waste in your biohazard (red) bag, the trash or sharps container.
  
  
• Don't rinse traps, filters, or screens over or down the drain or into a waste basket.
  
  
• Don't disinfect teeth or any item contain- ing amalgam with any method that uses heat.
  
  
• Don't use house-hold bleach or other oxidizing cleaner on vaccum lines.
  
  
• Don't decant liquid in which amalgam has been stored down the drain.
  
  
• Don't rinse tools used to place or carve amalgams over the drain.

Non-Contact Amalgam has not been in contact with the patient and includes:

• broken or unusable amalgam capsules,
• excess amalgam, and
• empty amalgam capsules from restorative treatment.

Recommended Practices for Non-Contact Amalgam:

• Store amalgam wastes in separate airtight containers labeled "extracted teeth," "scrap amalgam," "traps," etc.
• Recycle all waste amalgam.

Mercury that results from:

• spills of bulk mercury,
• broken thermometers, and
• blood pressure units.

Recommended Practices for Elemental Mercury:

• Train staff in spill cleanup procedures.
• Always wear nitrile gloves when cleaning up a spill.
• Clean up visible mercury with a spill kit.
  
• Place contaminated items in a sealable container labeled "bulk mercury waste" and send to an authorized recycling facility.
  
• Recycle unused bulk mercury through an amalgam recycler.

• Don't clean mercury spills with a vacuum cleaner.

Fluorescent Bulbs are comprised of phosphor powder which contains mercury.

Recommended Practices for Fluorescent Bulbs:

• Recycle fluorescent light bulbs through a mercury recycler.

• Don't break fluorescent bulbs or discard them in the trash.