Associated Press 

Don Goldsmith from D.F. Goldsmith Chemical & Metal Corp. in Evanston, Ill., said there were too many uncertainties after India threatened to seize the shipment and New York and Maine declared it to be hazardous waste.

''We're not going to send it to India. At this point, it becomes such an emotional item. Why stir up a hornet's nest?'' Goldsmith said.

Activists in the United States and overseas criticized the transaction as an example of U.S. dumping of toxic materials in underdeveloped countries.

Michael Bender, executive director of the Vermont-based Mercury Policy Project, said India was justified in rejecting the shipment.

''This signals an end to the circle of poison,'' added Michael Belliveau, toxics project coordinator of the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

The shipment was part of 50 tons of mercury that was removed from the HoltraChem plant in Orrington. Another 80 tons of mercury once used in a manufacturing process remains on site in storage flasks, said Ed Logue, regional director of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

The HoltraChem plant closed last September after coming under fire from environmentalists because of mercury emissions.

The mercury from the plant was classified by Maine environmental officials as hazardous waste, but Goldsmith believed that it would be reclassified as a commercial product when it arrived at Mercury Waste Solutions in Albany, N.Y.

Twenty tons of the mercury was shipped to India and more was shipped to a Goldsmith facility in the Midwest before New York environmental regulators decided to honor Maine's designation of the material as hazardous waste.

''The shipment came from Maine as a hazardous waste. It left New York as a hazardous waste. Where it goes now depends on who wants to accept something labeled as hazardous waste,'' said Peter Constantakes, spokesman for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

The mercury was being shipped to India for use in medical instruments and other manufacturing processes.

Goldsmith said the mercury is worth more than $1 per pound, so he considers it a valuable commodity that can be reused in some countries even though its use is being phased out in the United States.

''Something that for the last 35 years has been labeled as a commodity and traded as a commodity is now labeled as a hazardous waste,'' Goldsmith said from Florida, where he was vacationing Friday.

He said it made more sense for industries that still use mercury to utilize reprocessed mercury instead of mined mercury, which would simply contribute to disposal problems down the road.

But David Lennett, director of the Maine DEP's Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management, said steps need to be taken to phase out mercury and that the federal government should intervene to store the mercury.

''Mercury is not a commodity like potato chips. It's a proven environmental problem and steps need to be taken to reduce international demand and supply if we're going to address this problem,'' he said.

One town in Maine has already voted to ban mercury thermometers, and the Maine Legislature is considering a similar proposal.

On Friday, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, announced plans to introduce a bill to curb mercury emissions, promote trade-in programs to phase out mercury thermometers and to stop mercury from being dumped in Third World countries.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also announced her own plans Friday for a bill to eliminate mercury thermometers.