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UN to Consider Mercury Treaty After U.S. Drops Opposition 100
U.S. Newswire
7 Feb 3:39
UN to Consider Mercury Treaty After U.S. Drops Opposition
To: National and International desks
Contact: Michael Bender of the Mercury Policy Project,
802-249-8543(c) or 802-223-9000
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb. 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- At a United Nations
Environment Program Governing Council meeting today, Environmental
Ministers are expected to agree on taking immediate actions and
consider further measures -- including an international treaty --
to address the significant adverse impacts of global mercury. The
near final version of the agreement was reached late Thursday only
after the US delegation dropped its opposition near the very end of
the negotiations. It's expected that the Environment Ministers
will adopt it on Friday.
The Ban Mercury Working Group (Ban Hg-Wg) expressed support for
taking both immediate and long-term actions to curtail mercury
pollution.
"No single country can resolve the mercury problem on its own,"
said Michael Bender, Mercury Policy Project director and the BAN-HG
Working Group representative attending the Nairobi meeting. "There
are alternatives for mercury uses, but there is no alternative to
global cooperation."
Recently, there has been growing awareness and interest in the
need to address the mercury issue both at home and internationally.
"The exploration of creating an international treaty to address
the global mercury problem was called for by the European Union in
December," said Bender. "Also, last September at the UNEP global
mercury meeting in Geneva, Latin American and Carribean countries
called more pointedly for a treaty. In the US, the Environmental
Council of the States,an organization comprised of top
environmental state officials from all 50 states, have called for
a binding international treaty on mercury within 6 years."
Mercury levels have increased 3-to-5 fold in the past century
due to human activities and are reaching threshold levels that
threaten human health and the environment, as well as the future
viability of the global fishing industry. Since 1996, fish has
surpassed beef and poultry as the most consumed protein source in
the world, but is now threatened by mercury build-up in the global
environment.
Sources and uses of mercury include the burning of fossil fuels,
mining operations, industrial uses and waste disposal.
Ban Hg-Wg is a network of 28 public interest non-government
organizations from around the world, formed to promote the
following:
-- Use of mercury is phased out in both the South and the North
and all new mining must cease;
-- Mercury releases from all sources are subject to continuing
minimization, and ultimate elimination as feasible;
-- Commodity transactions and global trade in mercury must be
reduced and then eliminated;
-- Long-term storage facilities must be created to assure
environmentally sound storage of existing quantities of mercury;
and
--In the interim, the South must not become a dumping ground for
mercury-based technologies, products and/or wastes.
For more information:
http://www.chem.unep.ch/mercury
http://www.ban.org/Ban-Hg-Wg
http://www.mercurypolicy.org
http://www.usnewswire.com
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/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
02/07 03:45
Copyright 2003, U.S. Newswire
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