DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — Ohio high school students can say goodbye to mercury-containing thermometers in science class while younger kids will eventually have to do without their sneakers that light-up in the heels.

A new state law begins banning mercury-containing products in phases.

April 6: Schools will be banned from purchasing mercury or mercury-added measuring devices for classroom use.

Oct. 6: The sale and distribution of mercury-containing thermometers and novelty items will be banned.

April 6, 2008: The sale and reinstallation of mercury-containing thermostats will be banned.

Jan. 1, 2011: Novelty items with button cell batteries will be banned.

Mercury-containing button cell batteries have been used to power kids toys, such as light-up shoes and blinking superballs.

More than a dozen states have already passed similar bans, and Ohio is the last of the Great Lakes states to do so.

Every year across Ohio, there are accidental mercury spills in science classrooms.

This forces schools to close for clean up and have children tested.

There are an estimated 5.9 million thermostats in Ohio homes that contain 39,000 tons of mercury.

Anytime thermostats, thermometers, batteries or toys containing mercury are discarded there's the chance the material will be inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin, said Jack Shaner of the Ohio Environmental Council.

Mercury is a highly toxic material that affects developing nervous systems in fetuses and children up to 15 years old.

Environmental groups have been pushing to remove nonessential mercury from commercial, consumer and household products.

"Anything we can do to bite off a chunk of the mercury menace, we should do," Shaner said.

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1624 or

lbischoff@DaytonDailyNews.com.