Environment Ministers Call for Action on Mercury

By Cat Lazaroff

NAIROBI, Kenya, February 10, 2003 (ENS) - The delegates attending last week's international meeting on environmental governance agreed to crack down on sources of mercury emissions around the globe. But objections from the U.S. delegation prevented the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme from adopting binding limits on emissions from power plants and other major mercury sources.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) agreed to begin the process of helping nations devise methods of reducing their mercury emissions. The mercury decision followed discussions of a global assessment report, compiled by UNEP and other experts and presented to delegates earlier in the week, which highlighted the threat to humans and wildlife from this persistent, toxic heavy metal.

Incinerators like this one in Chicago, Illinois can release mercury from medical waste and other sources (Photo courtesy Lake Michigan Federation)

Delegates to last week's meeting supported that conclusion, and called for action to reduce mercury emissions. But the United States delegation lobbied successfully to block the adoption of a binding protocol limiting uses of mercury.

Under the action plan reached at the meeting, UNEP has been asked to assist all countries, particularly developing nations and countries with economies in transition such as the former states of the Soviet Union, in a wide ranging initiative to cut emissions of mercury from major sources such as coal fired power stations and incinerators.

The agency's measures may include advising countries on cleaner coal methods, improving the efficiency of power stations, and advice and help on switching to other forms of electricity generation including renewable power sources such as wind and solar power. Assisting countries on reducing other sources and causes of mercury pollution, including contaminated waste sites, dental amalgams and equipment, will also be part of the plan.

The agreement also calls for UNEP to help develop public awareness programs to alert the public to the risks of mercury exposure, particularly to vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and babies, and workers and communities involved in small scale gold and silver mining.

UNEP Executive Director Klaus Töpfer (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

Some nations, particularly the European delegation, wanted more decisive action regarding mercury. Along with representatives of environmental groups, the European delegates called for the drafting of an international protocol that would limit the uses of mercury.

But the U.S. delegation opposed such action, arguing that such international agreements take too long and cost too much to negotiate. Under the Bush administration, the U.S. has opposed or withdrawn from a variety of international environmental pacts, including the Kyoto Protocol on global climate change.

An internal U.S. document leaked to a mercury watchdog group last week instructed the U.S. delegates to resist calls for international limits on mercury releases or other mandatory measures aimed at reducing the risk of mercury exposure. The deliberative document called for U.S. negotiators to oppose the adoption of language that would lead to an international convention on mercury, or even require further meetings on the topic.

U.S. officials were advised to support the creation of a mercury program within the UNEP Chemicals Division, "for the purpose of facilitating and conducting technical assistance and capacity building activities to support the efforts of countries to take action regarding mercury pollution." That was the course of action the negotiators ultimately agreed upon.

On the global mercury assessment, the European Union and Norway supported a legally binding instrument, while the U.S., Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic and Mexico, opposed it. (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

Critics of the delay in more definitive action argue that the dangers of mercury are too great to ignore. The UNEP report on mercury found that pollution by the hazardous heavy metal is far more widespread and pervasive than previously believed.

"Mercury is a substance that can be transported in the atmosphere and in the oceans around the globe, traveling hundreds and thousands of miles from where it is emitted," said Töpfer. "This new report, requested from UNEP by governments two years ago, shows that the global environmental threat to humans and wildlife has not receded despite reductions in mercury discharges, particularly in developed countries. Indeed it shows that the problems remain and appear, in some situations to be worsening as demand for energy, the largest source of human made mercury emissions, climbs."

Mercury poisoning of the planet could be best reduced by curbing pollution from power stations, the report suggests. The report, compiled by an international team of experts, says that coal fired power stations and waste incinerators now account for around 1,500 tons or 70 percent of new, quantified manmade mercury emissions to the atmosphere.

Coal burning power plants send hundreds of pounds of mercury into the air each year. (Two photos by Carole Swinehart, courtesy Michigan Sea Extension)

"As combustion of fossil fuels is increasing in order to meet the growing energy demands of both developing and developed nations, mercury emissions can be expected to increase accordingly in the absence of the deployment of control technologies or the use of alternative energy sources," the report says.

"There are many compelling scientific, environmental and health arguments for curbing pollution linked with energy production. The mercury report gives us another compelling reason to reduce society's dependence on carbon intensive energy supplies," added Töpfer.

The Bush administration has resisted calls for mandatory reductions in power plant emissions, calling instead for more research and for voluntary steps to cut air pollution from the energy sector.

The U.S. delegation opposed forming a legally binding instrument on mercury. (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

Just three years ago, the U.S. Research Council estimated that about 60,000 babies born each year in the U.S. could be at risk of brain damage with possible impacts ranging from learning difficulties to impaired nervous systems. However, based on more recent exposure data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some scientists think the number of at risk babies could be as high as 300,000.

Globally the number could run into the millions. Once in the atmosphere, this hazardous heavy metal can travel hundreds and thousands of miles, contaminating places far away from the world's sites where the pollution was originally discharged.

Children who are exposed to mercury in utero may suffer damage to their brains and nervous systems, affecting language, attention and memory (Photo by Ken Hammond, courtesy USDA)

Mercury levels in Arctic ringed seals and beluga whales have increased by up to four times over the last 25 years in some areas of Canada and Greenland.

"Mercury is a huge problem, a traveler without a passport, that spreads around the world in air and water," concluded Töpfer. "Action is necessary. We have to reduce drastically and as soon as possible the risk it poses to a lot of people."