|I recall that shortly after the introduction of the LED sneakers, the
|manufacturer (Nike?) pulled them from shelves and redesigned them because
|of the outrage over mercury in them.  I think there was a hazardous waste
|disposal problem.  My guess is that the stuff in the glass ampule is not
|mercury.  Anyway, what kind of manufacturing process could contaminate
|the mercury so thoroughly as to make it unrecognizable?

>From what I read, the Nike shoes used batteries to power the LED's,
and the batteries used contained much more mercury than the alkalines
produced by most vendors today.  The mercury in question was not,
AFAIK, uncombined elemental mercury (which is simultaneously very cool
and very nasty), but instead took the form of mercury salts which are
not discernable from any other kind without chemical analysis.

I'd never heard anything about the shoes using Peizos, though I guess
such a thing would be possible.