THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 31, 1995 TAG: 9501310036
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
You know those athletic shoes with the red flashing lights in the heels, the ones kids love?
Well, they may end up as hazardous waste. Really.
Some of the lights in some of the shoes are activated by a tiny bead of mercury in the heel, and pollution-control folks in two states have put an official foot down: No mercury-activated shoes in landfills or incinerators.
Minnesota and Wisconsin have banned the sale of clothing that contains mercury, pinpointing L.A. Gear's ``My Li'l Lights'' and ``L.A. Lights'' shoes. Wearing the shoes is not a health hazard, but throwing them away, the states said, threatens the environment. L.A. Gear, after paying an out-of-court settlement of $70,000, began using non-polluting switches in shoes shipped to retailers beginning in August 1994. But shoes purchased or placed on store shelves before then may contain mercury. Consumers can't tell the difference.
So what is an environmentally conscious, fashion-following shoe owner to do? Call a toll-free number to get a prepaid envelope in which to mail those worn-out tennies to a federal recycling facility.
Carolanne Guido watched her 5-year-old daughter stomp around the kitchen to make her shoes light up. ``Oh, that's awful,'' she said of the mercury switch. ``I often thought about what makes it light, but nobody could tell me in the stores.''
Stacey Guido kept marching. ``I like 'em,'' she announced, ``because they light when you stamp.''
What really happens is that a BB-size bead of mercury rolls against two copper wires. The company began using a ball bearing in the switch after the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency took legal action last year, saying that the amount of mercury in one pair of shoes equaled the amount found in 2,200 contaminated fish.
That doesn't weigh too heavily with the grade-school set here. Six-year-old Sky Curtis of Virginia Beach owns two pairs of L.A. Gear lighted shoes: black athletic shoes and black sandals. ``For one reason, they're for dark,'' he explained earnestly. For another, they're just his favorites, and he needs a pair for every season.
L.A. Gear, finding itself in deep you-know-what, paid $50,000 for disposal costs and $20,000 to educate consumers in Minnesota. Not so here.
``Virginia doesn't regulate tennis shoes,'' said Chuck Epes, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Quality.
Even so, concerned owners may call (800) 786-7820 for prepaid disposal packaging.
``It's bad enough you have to take your used oil to be recycled, now you have to recycle your tennis shoes,'' Guido lamented.
Just click those ruby-red heels together and repeat after me: There's no place like a federal recycling facility in Texas, there's no place like a federal recycling facility in Texas. . . . ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/Staff
Some shoes that light up like these have a mercury switch.
by CNB