According to statistics in the report Environment and Society published in the 1970s in the United States, the standard of living of Americans needed to no more than double since the second world war for the amount of mercury used to produce chlorides, oxides and hydrogenates to increase 40 times. Every year broken thermometers alone account for some 7,000 kilograms of mercury escaping into the environment.
根據一九七○年代，在美國出版的環境叢書「環境與社會」統計，二次大戰後，美國人的生活水準不過提高一倍，汞用來製造氯及氫氧化鈉的數量卻增加了四十倍；僅僅在加拿大，每一年因打破溫度計而釋出的水銀量就有七千公斤。