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21-26 May 2023, Kara – Togo
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is recognised in Africa, and particularly in West Africa, as one of the income-generating activities for local communities. However, despite the positive economic benefits, particularly in terms of improving living conditions, ASGM requires special attention, particularly in terms of organisation, regulations and sustainable practices that respect human health and the environment.
It is October 2013, and Rimiko Yoshinaga is standing behind a podium in Minamata, Japan, gazing at an auditorium packed with world leaders.
Silence descends upon the room as she begins recounting how a mysterious illness had killed her father decades earlier.
Yoshinaga would learn her father was one of thousands of Minamata-area residents poisoned in the 1950s and 1960s by industrial runoff laced with mercury, a neurotoxin.
21-26 mai 2023, Kara – Togo
L’extraction artisanale et à petite échelle de l’or est reconnue en Afrique, et particulièrement en Afrique de l’Ouest, comme l’une des activités génératrices de revenus pour les communautés autochtones. Cependant, malgré les retombées économiques positives notamment pour l’amélioration des conditions de vie des populations, la pratique de l’orpaillage nécessite une attention particulière notamment en termes d’organisation, réglementations, et pratiques durables respectueuses de la santé humaine et de l’environnement.
As we reached the 6th anniversary of the Minamata Convention on Mercury entering into force, many countries are moving from planning to implementation of the required actions to make mercury history.
Every week, Ibu Sugiyanti makes her way to the small-scale gold mining camp where she teaches mercury-free alternatives to other women miners. The site is located on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, in the village of Logas, an impressive biodiversity hotspot that is also home to hundreds of small-scale gold miners. Sugiyanti’s efforts aim to empower women and transform the way mining is approached in this vibrant corner of Sumatra.
On the occasion of the 2023 International Day for Biodiversity, a new study sheds light on the profound socio-economic consequences of mercury pollution on biodiversity, fisheries and livelihoods. Mercury, a highly hazardous substance with detrimental effects on both humans and animals, poses significant risks to health and ecosystems.
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For centuries, human beings have endangered body and mind in pursuit of the toxic fallacy that pale skin represents the highest form of beauty.
Senegal, Thailand and Uruguay have joined forces to reduce the environmental and health impacts of the dental industry
Mercury is a key component of dental amalgam, posing significant risks to human and environmental health when improperly handled and disposed of
$13-million initiative will support a holistic approach to accelerate the phase down of dental amalgam use and improve the disposal of mercury-containing waste
Artisanal mining is a common activity in various regions of Brazil, but despite its economic benefits it also faces significant challenges that expose workers to multiple risks, including the use of mercury in mineral extraction. These challenges are especially pronounced for Brazilian women, who often face gender discrimination, poor working conditions, and health risks.
Strapped together by tape and frayed ropes, wooden logs demarcate the mineshaft’s entrance, a hole in the ground no larger than a metre square.
A young man nearby cranks a lever, kickstarting some generators. The steady hum of the machinery blends with the creaking of a pulley system, drowning out the sounds of the gentle breeze blowing through the mining site, located in Paracale, north Philippines.
Gabon, Jamaica and Sri Lanka have joined forces to reduce the environmental and health toll of the skin lightening industry
$14-million initiative will support a holistic approach to eliminate mercury from skin lightening products and promote the beauty of all skin tones
Many skin lightening products include mercury, posing significant risks to human health and the environment
Eliminating Mercury Skin Lightening Products
Communication from TAUW bv
The not-for-profit Foundation of TAUW, who recently joined the Partnership, is currently calling for tenders with up to EUR 120,000 support available for individual projects that stimulate, accelerate, and (financially) support sustainable non-profit projects focused on initiatives that aim for a sustainable and valuable impact on the physical living environment, including reductions in mercury use, release, emission, and bioavailability.
Minamata Initial Assessments (MIAs) provide analyses of the national context with respect to sources of inputs, emissions and discharges of mercury and its compounds. In addition to exploring the countries' legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks, the MIAs provide a national mercury inventory using the UNEP Toolkit for the Identification and Quantification of Emissions and Releases of Mercury and its Compounds.
The Global Mercury Partnership explores ASGM and Biodiversity
Mining is not something that most people associate with Costa Rica. The country is portrayed as a land of volcanoes, rainforests, captivating wildlife and paradise coastlines. Costa Rica is also a well-known and applauded environmental model in terms of its law and regulations protecting country’s biodiversity and ecosystems.
The Partnership Advisory Group (PAG) decided at its tenth meeting, held in Geneva on 23 November 2019, to begin work on the subject of mercury from oil and gas, which it had identified as cross-cutting between different Partnership areas. In follow-up to expert consultations in April 2020, Partnership area leads agreed to oversee a process for developing a study report, with a view to better understanding how mercury can be released, in addition to how waste is treated and accounted for and how it may enter the market for other uses.
Within the project for “promoting the Minamata Convention on Mercury by making the most of Japan's knowledge and experiences”, the National Institute for Minamata Disease (NIMD), in collaboration with United Nations Environment Programme Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (UNEP ROAP), calls laboratories that undertake mercury analysis for monitoring, survey or research, to participate in a ‘Proficiency Testing’ for assessing their analytical capacity.
Five years have passed since the Minamata Convention on Mercury entered into force on 16 August 2017. Although the convention itself is young, it builds on a long history of scientific efforts to understand and manage the risk of mercury, a toxic substance.
Recognizing the sector was estimated to be a major source of mercury emissions and releases, the Partnership Advisory Group decided at its tenth meeting (November 2019) to initiate work on mercury from non-ferrous metals mining and smelting, which it had identified as a cross-cutting topic amongst several Partnership areas.
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is crucial to the livelihood of millions of people in over 80 countries, mainly in rural areas with limited alternative economic prospects. ASGM is increasingly recognized as an opportunity to alleviate poverty and contribute to local, national, and regional development.
Toxic skin-lightening creams are still sold freely across South Africa, despite clear health dangers and the legacy of apartheid.
In the dying days of apartheid, South Africa banned the sale of cosmetic creams that were designed to make black people look whiter. On 10 August 1990, the National Party health minister Dr Rina Venter banned the importation, manufacture and sale of cosmetic skin lighteners and also banned any products that claimed to “bleach”, “lighten” or “whiten” people’s skins.
The Asia-Pacific Annual Webinar on Mercury Science 2021 held on 21 and 26 October 2021 provided latest update on the progress of the project for “promoting the Minamata Convention on Mercury by making the most of Japan's knowledge and experiences” implemented by the UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP).
In light of the high level interest from participants in the forthcoming project activity on laboratory proficiency testing on mercury, UNEP ROAP is extending the invitation for expression of interest to mercury laboratories outside the Asia-Pacific region.
The first segment of the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP-4) is taking place from 1 to 5 November 2021 online.
Masami Ogata is a survivor of Minamata Disease, a debilitating illness caused by industrial mercury poisoning, which originated in the Japanese town of the same name in the 1950s. As a UN conference on preventing future poisoning outbreaks gets underway, we hear Mr. Ogata’s story.
As a storyteller at the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum, Mr. Ogata helps to keep alive the memory of what is considered to be one of the most serious Japanese pollution incidents of the Twentieth Century.
In the late 1950s, people and animals in the Japanese fishing village of Minamata began to fall ill to a strange disease, which mainly affects the central nervous system. In severe cases, victims fell into a coma and died within weeks. Researchers later found that high levels of methylmercury, the most toxic form of mercury, in the industrial wastewater from a chemical factory was the cause of the disease and named it Minamata disease.
The overall goal of the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership is to protect human health and the environment from the releases of mercury.