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NPEP Success Story: Anderson Instrument Company
Anderson Instrument Company, Inc. Challenges Regulations, Eliminates 500 Pounds of Mercury
Anderson Instrument Company, Inc. is a 100 person organization based in upstate New York. The Company was founded in 1930 to repair chart drives for dairies and creameries. Today, Anderson manufactures indicators, recorders, controllers, and transmitters for sanitary applications. These instruments measure pressure, temperature, and level in the food, dairy, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and beverage markets.
Anderson's NPEP Goal
Anderson set an NPEP goal to eliminate 500 pounds of mercury by phasing
out the production of non-industrial mercury thermometers. We committed
to the complete phasing-out of our mercury thermometer product line by
year-end 2005. This product line has traditionally been widely used in
the Food and Dairy industry, an industry to which we have supplied equipment
for many years. Given concerns for product contamination and strict public
health requirements, many organizations have started internal hazardous
material reduction programs. Being a major supplier, we felt obligated
to the industry to help the program along by stopping production at the
source. We kicked off this initiative many years ago, knowing the direction
the industry would take. We met our goals by first aggressively developing
a number of environmentally friendly electronic alternatives for all legacy
processes. Many alternatives required FDA approvals to be put in place
prior to launch.
NPEP Project Implementation
The Food and Dairy industry has internal initiatives in place to reduce
hazardous substances. With electronic temperature indication a mainstay
in today's production facilities, Anderson was challenged by FDA to go
one step further. Electronic alternatives for processes monitoring public
health controls needed to meet strict criteria for quality, reliability,
and failsafe operation. Anderson engineered a series of products that
all met indentified standards. These products now carry detailed FDA acceptance
memoranda and are in wide-scale use within the industry.
Hurdles Faced
The primary hurdle was existing regulatory standards. These standards,
many of which were drafted a number of years ago, all called for key public
health controls to be monitored by mercury-in-glass thermometers. Working
with proactive industry partners, Anderson began developing the first
alternatives in the early nineties. With more product additions in the
years to follow, we have met all of our developmental goals. Our efforts
have been very well received by the Dairy industry.
One area not yet addressed is the retort cooker application within the Food segment. These regulations have yet to be updated and continue to specifically describe mercury-in-glass thermometers as the only approved reference device. With Anderson no longer manufacturing mercury-in-glass thermometers, industry is eager to begin the conversion process; however, we still await FDA approval. Upon approval, all key areas monitoring public health controls will have safe and environmentally friendly alternatives.
Waste Minimization Results
We have completely ceased production of mercury-in-glass thermometers,
meeting 100% of our goal. Furthermore, regulatory response within the
Dairy segment was very quick to commend our efforts. With Anderson being
the major supplier to this market, we sent a clear message to the industry:
"We're committed to being a full service provider of equipment for
monitoring public health controls and dedicated to help drive the programs
and standards to achieve these goals in an environmentally friendly manner."
Lessons Learned
With a new movement for small scale on-farm processing gaining momentum,
we were able to offer non-mercury alternatives. This win would not have
been possible without the commitment to understand and the willingness
to change regulations as demonstrated by the FDA Milk Safety branch.