Legislation

Congressional concern

The US Congress has expressed concern over increasing and potentially dangerous levels of selenium in the environment. Legislation introduced in 2003, the Manganese Metal Safety Control Act (HR 2812, PDF, 28kb), directed the Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a study of the "potentially injurious effects to the environment and human health from imported electrolytic manganese metal that contains selenium." New, tougher legislation is expected to be introduced in the new Congress convening in January 2005.

There are no longer any US manganese metal producers, which essentially were driven out of the market by cheaper selenium-laced manganese imports from China.

According to the latest information, only four of the approximately 100 Chinese manganese metal producers do not use selenium in their production process. The other major source of manganese metal is South Africa, where selenium is not used in the production process. Selenium enters the US environment through the waste stream and in baghouse dust from aluminum and other manufacturing processes using selenium-contaminated manganese (see Case Study).