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Health Care Without Harm and the World Health Organization have launched a global partnership to replace 70% of all mercury thermometers and blood pressure devices around the world with safer, accurate, and affordable digital and aneroid alternatives within a decade.

They unveiled a Web site — www.mercuryfreehealthcare.org — at a mercury alternatives conference in New Delhi, India.

It's almost impossible to find a mercury thermometer in the United States, while the European Union has banned them outright, as has Taiwan. The Philippines has mandated a phase-out of all mercury medical devices over the next two years, and hundreds of hospitals in Latin America, from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina, are moving toward alternatives, officials said.

Besides working with health experts at the conference, organizers discussed bolstering production of non-mercury devices with business leaders and aid agencies, according to Health Care Without Harm, a coalition of 473 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in the healthcare sector.

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