(Göteborg,
Sweden) The Minamata Convention, the world’s first legally binding global
agreement to
The
treaty, say IPEN leaders, is the beginning of the end of mercury in the global
economy. But to actualize the aim of the treaty—protecting the health of
current and future generations, food chains and the environment from mercury
pollution— requires stronger coordinated global action. Ending mercury use and
emissions at its primary sources such as small-scale gold mining, coal fired
power plants and cement kilns and halting the global mercury trade are key.
Identifying and remediating contaminated sites are also essential to protecting
human health from the highly toxic metal.
The
Minamata Convention, the first legally binding chemical treaty in a decade,
recognizes that mercury is a global threat to human health, livelihood and the
environment. Currently 74 countries have
ratified the treaty, exceeding the threshold of 50 countries that allows the treaty
to enter into force.
“Mercury-contaminated
sites have become a slow disaster in many countries, poisoning fish stocks and
making communities sick. It is not enough to ban new industrial uses. To
prevent mercury devastation for new generations, we need unified guidelines so
that countries can identify and control risk from these sites and clean up
communities where heavy mercury loads in the environment perpetuate harm to
current and future generations,” said IPEN Mercury Policy Advisor, Dr. Lee
Bell.
Use
of mercury in gold mining and coal fired power plants are leading causes of
mercury emissions on the planet. Small scale gold mining is an extremely
hazardous process that sickens miners, their families and communities.
According to the United Nations Environment Program, approximately 15 million
people in over 70 countries engage in
artisanal small scale gold mining (ASGM) activities for their livelihood,
practices that mainly use mercury. Although declining, mercury from illicit
sources have been and are still being used in many illegal small-scale gold
mining practices.
“The
tragedy of mercury causes profound health and economic impacts in some of the
most impoverished communities around the world; communities that subsist
through small scale gold mining. Unless we take global action to end the
international mercury trade that dumps mercury into communities near gold
mining sites, we will continue to poison some of the most vulnerable and
marginalized people on our planet,” said IPEN lead for ASGM and Goldman Prize
Winner Yuyun Ismawati.
To
protect residents from adverse health effects, countries must improve their
mercury monitoring, health measures, and food advisories, and increase the
capacity of health practitioners to understand and tackle issues related to
mercury poisoning.
IPEN
Co-Chair and Goldman Prize Winner Dr. Olga Speranskaya says, “Monitoring of
mercury levels in food products must be improved. The majority of developing
countries, and countries with economies in transition, do not issue
recommendations to pregnant women on daily intake limits of mercury-containing
food products such fish and rice, with dire consequences. Most developing
countries lack limits for mercury levels in fish. Those that have established
limits, often set them lower than relevant limits of developed countries, thus
reducing the level of protection of their residents from the adverse health
impacts of mercury.”
Just
as the treaty itself emerged from the work of hundreds of NGOs around the world
to raise the alarm on far-reaching mercury impacts, the NGO community is
resolved to ensure the treaty is effective.
“Our
community of global environmental health, justice, and human rights NGOs will
continue to hold the world’s governments accountable to uphold the spirit and
intent of the treaty, to encourage more countries to ratify, and to advocate
for governments to take necessary actions so that this important agreement
successfully protects the many millions of humans threatened by mercury,” said
Pamela Miller, IPEN Co-Chair.
The
historical treaty is named after the Minamata disaster in Japan in which
industrial dumping of mercury into Minamata Bay killed and sickened tens of
thousands of people.
Mercury
exposure damages the nervous system, kidneys, and cardiovascular system.
Developing organ systems, such as the fetal nervous system, are the most
sensitive to the toxic effects of mercury, although nearly all organs are
vulnerable. Human exposure to mercury occurs primarily through the consumption
of contaminated fish and through direct contact with mercury vapor through
small scale gold mining practices. Very small amounts of mercury, as little as
1 ppmmeasured in hair, has been recognized by the US EPA as a threshold above
which mercury can cause brain damage in developing fetuses. New scientific
literature is suggesting that mercury is even more harmful than previously
understood, with negative neurological impacts noted at levels above 0.58
ppm.
Coal
fired power plants, the second greatest source of mercury contamination and a
primary contributor to climate change, release atmospheric mercury which
deposits into the world’s oceans and enters the food chain, accumulating in
fish and burdening human health.
