Mercury-Free AlternativesAccuracyAffordabilityDisposalGetting over the mercury biasSome medical professionals still consider mercury-based devices such as thermometers and blood pressure measuring device to be more accurate than their digital counterparts. This is in light of peer-reviewed studies that show the mercury bias to have no real scientific bearing. The mercury-filled glass thermometer, though easily and frequently broken, is one of the simplest and most widely used diagnostic tools. Because of this, it was the first clinical mercury device to be evaluated for accuracy in comparison to a growing number of available alternatives.After some debate in the 90s, Leick-Rude and Bloom, during routine accuracy testing in a study, reported that 25% of the glass/mercury thermometers tested differed from the reference thermometer by more than 0.2 degrees Centigrade. This finding was consistent with the authors' review of prior work. In addition to this, another recent study rejected...
