At Mobility Compare, we get inundated with press releases and stories regarding new mobility products. Some are awful, some far too technical and more than a few off message e.g. who wants to know about celebrity disability? There are, after all, 9 million ‘ordinary’ people in the UK with some form of disability and we don’t need a celebrity showing off their wooden hand.

Anyway, popping into our inbox this week was something that caught our eye. It involved batteries for hearing aids. Before you log off and do something more interesting like watching paint dry, bear with us.

The problem with hearing aid batteries is that, unlike ordinary batteries, they contain mercury which is used as a ‘conductor’ and ‘stabiliser’. As everyone knows, mercury is highly toxic and many dead batteries end up in landfill, poisoning the land and ruining the groundwater beneath it.

It’s been estimated that removing mercury completely from all hearing aid batteries worldwide would save over 6,500 kg of mercury each year – the equivalent of 15,000 footballs, which is a lot of pollution (especially if the balls belong to one particular, nameless North London football club). Clue: red/white shirts.

OK, here’s the serious point. A company based in Washington, Tyne & Wear, has now developed a new green battery for people with hearing aids. The firm in question, Rayovac, has developed ‘mercury-free’ batteries which are a major breakthrough in clean technology. Even better, the batteries are 20% to 30% more powerful than any other competitive battery.

This is big news on a number of fronts. Firstly, Rayovac are the only large manufacturer of hearing aid batteries in the UK and they make 200 million batteries per year – that’s nearly a quarter of the global market or nearly 4,000 mercury footballs.

Secondly, hearing aid batteries are traditionally quite expensive so any development that either improves their performance or lowers battery costs is very welcome, especially for many of the hard of hearing who are on disability benefits.

Thirdly, it’s a timely intervention because some countries are looking at banning mercury batteries. In the USA, Maine is banning mercury-containing batteries in June 2011.

Best of all, is that it’s a step closer to a healthier planet (a tiny step maybe in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill) but a step nonetheless.