Envi-Health Group Calls for Banning of Mercury Products

Proper product labeling sought

Quezon City — Reacting to news on the civil case filed against St. Andrew’s School in Paranaque City on the mercury poisoning that happened more than four years ago, environmental health non-government organization Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) called on the Department of Health (DoH) to go beyond Administrative Order (AO) 21 implementation and “once and for all ban the entry of mercury products in the market.”

“We have here the face of mercury poisoning,” said Faye Ferrer, HCWH-SEA Program Officer for Mercury in Health Care, in a Regional Conference on Mercury Phase-out and Proper Health Care Waste Management organized by HCWH-SEA and DoH-Center for Health Development.

“John Seth was only 14 years old when his Science teacher, unaware of its dangers, negligently passed around a beaker of mercury to the class. One ignorant move that caused the future of a boy.”

John Seth is among the more than 20 victims of the only recorded mercury poisoning that happened in the country on February 16, 2006.

“There are countless undocumented cases, not just in schools but in hospitals and homes. AO 21 is no longer enough. We need banning of mercury,” Ferrer pointed out.

John Seth has developed Parkinsonism and nerve damage. The boy constantly suffers tremors and fever hindering him from attending school and doing other social activities a boy his age would normally engage in.

“If the story of John Seth fails to touch your heart, we do not know what will,” Ferrer lamented.

Banned: Mercury beauty products

Earlier the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) banned three mercury-laced beauty products from China.

“Another problem we have here is that our products are never properly labeled and are never regulated,” Ferrer pointed out..

“Check the market and you will see hundreds of products that are either without labels or even if it has labels, it is in a foreign language that not all Filipinos understand,” she added..

“We need to give people the power to choose and the power to make the right choices..
Choosing mercury-free

With the coming May 2010 elections, people are once again choosing which candidates to support. HCWH-SEA has a word of warning to voters: choose mercury-free.

The group has launched the: Green Health Covenant asking the voters to enjoin their candidates to be supportive of mercury phase-out and other green health care agenda..

“We do not want another mercury poisoning incident. Let us choose better lives and choose the best candidates.”.

The Green Health Covenant now has close to 800 signatures from health care facilities in Regions 1 and 2 and online signatories..

“We enjoin health care workers, school administrators, present and future leaders and individuals to push for the banning of mercury now. And for the DoH, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and other concerned agencies to make the banning possible.”