COIMBATORE: Patients and doctors in India faced a big health hazard due to exposure to mercury, environmental and health activists told a seminar here on Sunday.

In a one-day workshop conducted by Osai, a Tamil Nadu based environmental organization, along with Indian Medical Association(IMA), Toxic Link and Tekno Therm Industries, they called for phasing out mercury from the healthcare sector.

"Though mercury is used in tubelights and CFL bulbs, it is an undeniable fact that our hospitals are more exposed to it. In thermometers and dental amalgam, high toxic-level mercury is present and our health sector is still using them, even though we have alternatives," Satish Sinha, associate director of Toxic Link, Delhi, said.

Original article in The Times of India.