With the recent addition of $2 billion to the Cash-For-Clunkers program, the government expects to take some 750,000 gas-guzzling cars off America's streets. Although the benefits to your pocketbook may be considerable, there are tradeoffs, and exposing the environment to health-harming mercury may be one of them.

It's an unfortunate convergence between the pullout of General Motors from the End of Life Vehicle Solutions (ELVS), an auto industry-sponsored partnership created to stop mercury emissions by collecting toxic auto parts when scrapped vehicles are crushed, and the far better-than-expected results from the Cash-For-Clunkers program.

Some 36 million mercury switches used in antilock brakes and trunk convenience lights found their way into cars built and sold during the last two decades of the 20th century, including more than half of them in GM vehicles. Until now, the program had collected 2.5 million switches, with GM being the largest contributor and sponsor.

All that changed when the "new" GM, now largely owned by the U.S. government, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July and declared that they weren't part of the ELVS program because they built cars without mercury switches. Without GM funding, the ELVS program could be scrapped or greatly scaled back, making it harder for recyclers to get rid of the mercury switches accumulating with Cash-For-Clunkers trade-ins.

USA Today August 10, 2009