Global: Mercury pollution
Threat from toxins must be reduced, UN programme
Governments have two years to see whether a United Nations–backed [UN] voluntary programme to reduce health and environmental threats from toxic mercury works, or whether an international, legally–binding treaty is needed to curb the heavy metal which is linked to a wide–range of medical problems, including babies who may be at risk of neurological damage.
The programme was agreed to by 140 governments at the UN Environmental Programmes [UNEP] Forum in Nairobi recently. It calls for developing partnerships between governments, industry and other key groups to curb mercury emissions from sources that range from power stations and mines to industrial and consumer products.
An estimated 2,000 tons of mercury are released into the environment every year according to the UNEP.
There will also be a drive to communicate the hazards of this metal to people in vulnerable groups who are likely to be worst affected by the pollution. Part of the programme may mirror another successful UNEP co–ordinated partnership to clean–up vehicle fuels in developing countries. This programme managed to phase–out lead, another heavy metal, from petrol pumps across sub–Saharan Africa.
UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said, “For too long environmental ministers have met and spoken but their collective voice has not been loudly and decisively heard in this world. This, I believe, has changed at this 24th session of the UNEP Governing Council.”
For further information visit the United Nations website at: www.un.org
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