Mercury (element) Senate passed legislation to phase out the sale of non-prescription mercury thermometers. In 2003, Washington and Maine became the first states to ban mercury blood pressure devices. Mercury compounds are found in some over-the-counter drugs, including topical antiseptics, stimulant laxatives, diaper-rash ointment, eye drops, and nasal sprays. The FDA has "inadequate data to establish general recognition of the safety and effectiveness" of the mercury ingredients in these products. Mercury is still used in some diuretics although substitutes now exist for most therapeutic uses. Chlorine is produced from sodium chloride (common salt, NaCl) using electrolysis to separate the metallic sodium from
Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers The Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers (CRESST) is a collaboration of European experimental particle physics groups involved in the construction of cryogenic detectors for direct dark matter searches. The participating institutes are the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Munich), Technische Universität München, Universität Tübingen, University of Oxford (Great Britain) and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN, Italy). The CRESST collaboration currently runs an array of cryogenic detectors in the underground laboratory of the Gran Sasso National Laboratory. The modular detectors used by CRESST facilitate discrimination of background radiation events by