The City of Knoxville's Public Service Division is helping sponsor a used Mercury thermometer exchange for Knoxville and Knox County residents from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., Saturday, November 15, at the Kmart next to West Town Mall.

The store is located at 7428 Kingston Pike and the thermometer exchange will be held in conjunction with the city's Unwanted Medicines Collection event.

The exchange offers city and county residents an opportunity to replace used mercury thermometers with battery-operated digital thermometers, provided by the sponsoring organizations.

The digital thermometers will be available to the public at no cost, in exchange for used mercury thermometers. Residents may bring in as many used thermometers to exchange as they wish from family, friends and neighbors, while supplies of battery-operated digital thermometers last.

In addition to the City of Knoxville's Solid Waste Office other sponsors include: the Knox County Health Department; Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Knox County Solid Waste Department.

Mercury thermometers are both an environmental and a health and safety problem. Broken thermometers are a potential source of injury from broken glass as well as a chemical hazard from mercury in the thermometer.

Please do not bring outdoor thermometers with red liquid. They do not contain mercury, which is silver-colored. Thermometers with red liquid, or colored alcohol, can be placed in the household trash.

For safety in transporting the thermometers please bring them in their storage cases. If those aren't available, or the thermometer is broken, the thermometers can be brought in a 12-ounce plastic water bottle with a screw-cap lid.

This exchange is limited to mercury thermometers from households.

Other types of mercury-containing waste such as old non-digital thermostats, barometers and manometers or other household devices containing mercury should be brought to the Knoxville Household Hazardous Waste Center, where it will be accepted for disposal during business hours.

The Household Hazardous Waste Center is free to residents of Knox County and City of Knoxville residents only and is located at 1033 Elm Street.

The Center does not accept material from businesses. Additional information about the Knoxville Household Waste Center is available at 215-6700.