In an effort to reduce the amount of mercury released into the environment, Canada has enacted the Products Containing Mercury Regulations SOR/2014-254. This regulation prohibits the manufacture and import of products containing mercury. Although this legislation has been in the works for quite some time, hearing aid batteries had been exempt from this legislation until now. Effective January 2016, Zinc-Air (mercury-containing) button-cell batteries for your hearing aids will be replaced with mercury-free batteries. 
For individuals not familiar with hearing aids, you might be surprised to hear that hearing aid batteries have to be replaced every 5-10 days, depending on the size of battery that is used. Do the math, and you can imagine how many batteries each hearing aid user will go through in a year (and how many batteries are replaced for all hearing aid users in the world!). Since current zinc-air batteries contain mercury, you can easily understand how improper disposal of these batteries could be harmful and toxic to both human health and the environment.
The good news is that the Halton Hearing Centre offers mercury-free batteries made by Rayovac (we have been offering this option since 2014). These batteries are considered to be the “World’s Longest Lasting Mercury Free Hearing Aid Battery”, they are affordable, and available in all battery sizes (10, 312, 13 & 675). More importantly, the performance of these mercury-free batteries is almost identical to Rayovac’s mercury-containing batteries. Batteries are always in stock at the clinic, and you can pick them up at the front desk!
