by Playfuls Staff |
5th February 2007
Industrialized nations should agree
binding rules to cut use of the toxic heavy metal mercury and
speed up plans to curb exports to the developing world,
environmental activists said on Monday. [more]
The United States and the European Union have substantially
cut their use of mercury - used in processes ranging from
mining to electronics, plastics and chemicals manufacturing -
but other countries are using it more and more.
"Governments must now agree tough and binding rules," Elena
Lymberidi of the Zero Mercury coalition said in a statement
ahead of a Kenya meeting of the world's environment ministers.
She urged global action and said the U.N. Environment
Program (UNEP) needed to get tough.
Mercury, also known as quicksilver, is highly toxic and
exposure can damage the brain, nervous system and fetuses.
World consumption of mercury has stabilized over the last
five years at about 3,500 tones a year with China and India the
top two importers.
The EU, the world's largest exporter, wants to phase out
its use and impose an export ban by 2011, but experts say
before that the market could be flooded with mercury as
suppliers rush to shift stocks.
Campaigners criticize governments for backing just
voluntary agreements rather than legally binding ones and want
global usage cut by 70 percent by 2017.
"Mercury is not potato chips, and we should not be trading
it on the world market as if it is," David Lennet, a senior
adviser to the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council,
told Reuters. "We need a binding legal instrument."
Almost a third of the world's supply is used by small scale
gold mines. Recent gains in the price of gold has bolstered
mercury demand and lifted prices.
In the 1990s a kg (2.2 lb) cost between $4-5 compared with
more than $12/kg now.
By Daniel Wallis(c) Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
