Minamata Treaty: Mercury-free Health Care by 2020!

One of the ten Global Green and Health Hospitals goals is to substitute chemicals with safer alternatives. A top action item under this goal is to substitute mercury-based thermometers and blood pressure devices with accurate, affordable alternatives. Thousands of hospitals around the world— many members of GGHH– have already made the switch and more are doing so every day.

Going mercury-free just became both more urgent and easier to do. On January 19 in Geneva, as part of the final text of a global mercury treaty, the world’s governments agreed to end the manufacture, import and export of all mercury-based medical devices— effectively phasing them out by 2020. They also called for a phasing-down of dental amalgam— a major source of mercury in the global environment. Negotiated over several years, the Minamata Treaty is set to be signed at a diplomatic conference in Japan in October 2013.

The health care aspect of the Minamata treaty is a major victory for all who have worked to substitute mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers (blood pressure devices). The agreed upon 2020 phase-out date represents the global acceptance and institutionalization of 15 years of work by HCWH and many others around the world to substitute mercury-based medical devices with safe, accurate and affordable alternatives. From the nurse on the ward, to the hospital director, to the public health official, to health professional associations, federations, governments and international organizations who have organized for mercury-free health care around the world—all should share in the credit for and celebrate this important achievement.

As a result of the ongoing global efforts, mercury-based medical devices are already phased-out or being phased out in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The treaty will further expand and engage new elements of government and civil society from around the world. We are extremely pleased with this outcome.

HCWH, as part of the joint Global Mercury-Free Healthcare Initiative that it co-leads with WHO, will be focusing on the target date of 2020 set by the treaty. We will be working with health professionals, hospitals, manufacturers, health systems and ministries of health to assure the rapid transition to accurate, affordable alternatives in order to achieve global mercury-free healthcare by 2020. Furthermore, we will be continuing our effort in promoting and advocating the environmentally sound management of mercury waste from health care facilities.

Click here to view the press release issued by Health Care Without Harm and the World Health Organization on behalf of the Global Mercury Free Healthcare Initiative.

Josh Karliner, HCWH International Coordinator

HCWH-SEA is now Asia

The year 2012 was a great year for us and the people whose lives we hope have touched. We have expanded our campaigns. The mercury campaign was expanded, and is now the Safer Chemicals program which now includes other hazardous chemicals in the health care setting. The Medical Waste campaign has ventured into a deeper look at the Philippine Health Care Waste Management Manual and continuously worked with the Anti-Incineration Road (AIR) Show (a collaboration between Philippine-based NGOs Ecowaste Coaliton (Ecowaste), and Mother Earth Foundation (MEF), and the international group Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives/Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance (GAIA) in the Philippines. Our office staff has expanded in numbers too.

2013 promises to be an even more exciting and at the same time a challenging year for us. We do not only celebrate a decade of meaningful years of work, we are also expanding the advocacy for environmental health in the whole Asian region.

We are now HCWH-Asia.

Asia region is the most diverse culturally, the one with the fastest growing economies and where several mega cities are situated. The cause for health and the environment should be the norm in this growing and dynamic region, as it should be too globally.

This year and in the coming years ahead, we hope to highlight more the encompassing issue of climate change and how it relates to other equally crucial issues such as toxic chemicals, improper health care waste management, burning of wastes, unsustainable infrastructure and how it impacts on our health and the environment.

This year, we go full blast in engaging hospitals to be part of the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals. GGHH is a global network and a movement of hospitals and health care systems that practices 10 interrelated goals: leadership, chemicals, waste, energy, water, transportation, food, pharmaceuticals, building and purchasing.

We call on private and public health care systems, hospitals and clinics to be part of this dynamic movement. We strongly believe and trust our partners in the government, international government and non-government groups, academe, scientists, donors, supporters, and other stakeholders that they will continue to be with us in this important work that we are doing.

We invite you to be part of our 10-10-13. Ten goals, ten years in 2013.

To our partners, supporters and friends, you all are a big part of HCWH Asia’s growth, substance and success.

Let’s continue the advocacy and the collaboration.

You ALL ROCK!

Merci Ferrer, HCWH-Asia Director

Health Care Without Harm Calls for a Mercury-Free Health System Measure

August 8, 2008

Health Care Without Harm Calls for a Mercury-Free Health System Measure

In line with the celebration of Hospital Week in the Philippines, Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)-Southeast Asia, urged the Department of Health (DOH) and all hospitals all over the country “to be true to their Hippocratic Oath, To first do no harm, by gradually phasing out mercury use in the country’s health care system.”

According to Faye Ferrer, HCWH-SEA Program Coordinator for Mercury, “the risk of mercury to people, wildlife and the environment should push the government to fast-track and put in place a law that will eventually make the country’s health care system mercury-free.”

She added that hospitals in US, Europe and members of the European Union have banned mercury thermometers and other equipments that use mercury. In the Philippines, the Philippine Heart Center is the first to switch to non-mercury alternatives.

“Countries around the world have proven that switching to mercury alternatives is affordable and the alternatives give the same result minus the hazards,” said Ferrer. “It is time Philippines follow suit and serve as a model in the Southeast Asian region.”

An Administrative Order (AO) crafted as early as 2007 by the HCWH-SEA in collaboration with the DOH, mandates the phase-out of mercury-containing thermometers and blood pressure devices along with other products that use mercury. The AO is yet to be signed this year.

At the Senate, four separate bills on mercury have been filed. These include Mercury Use in Schools Prohibition Act of 2008 (SB 2278), Mercury Thermometer Regulation Act of 2008 (SB 2259), Mercury Reduction Act (SB 893) and the Mercury Health Advisory Act (SB 678).

A report by Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), Power and Poisons: There’s Something About Mercury, said that the Philippines has no available statistics on the country’s mercury releases.

However, Ferrer said that in the US alone, mercury fever thermometers contributed 15 metric tons of mercury to solid waste landfills annually. “… and the worst thing about mercury is once it is released in the atmosphere, it is transported to the rest of the globe,” she added.

World Health Organization (WHO) reported as early as 1991 that a safe level of mercury exposure, below which there is no adverse effects, has never been established. In a policy paper they issued, it presented 3-pronged short, medium and long-term measures that include (a) development and implementation of plans to reduce the use of mercury equipment and replace it with alternatives, (b) increase efforts to reduce the risk of unnecessary mercury equipment in hospitals and (c) a ban of mercury-containing devices and promotion of alternatives.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), on the other hand, formulated a Mercury Program designed to raise awareness of the global environmental hazards of mercury after its Governing Council concluded that there is sufficient evidence of significant global adverse impacts from mercury to warrant further international action.

In October this year, the 2^nd UNEP Open Ended Working Group on Mercury will meet to discuss options and consensus recommendations with regards to the global challenges posed by mercury.

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a global coalition of 473 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in health care sector. For more information, visit www.noharm.org.