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In August 2017, one of the world’s most recent environmental accords came into force: The Minamata Convention on Mercury.
Across Myanmar, artisanal miners hunt for gold flecks in rivers and pit mines. The work is physically taxing and the income meagre. For many, the sprinkling of particles they find will only offer a few extra dollars of daily income.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is an international treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds. The year 2020 is a milestone for the Convention – it is when parties are required to cease the manufacture, import and export of many mercury-containing products listed in the Convention. Monika Stankiewicz, Executive Secretary of the Convention, reflects on its impact.
Mercury—a toxic heavy metal that can cause serious and lasting health problems—turns up in many places that you wouldn’t expect. It has now been more than two years since the entry into force of the Minamata Convention, a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. But the production of many mercury-containing products continues around the globe.
In July, a 47-year-old woman showed up at the emergency department of her local hospital in Sacramento, California. Her speech was slurred, she couldn’t walk, and she was unable to feel her hands or face. The woman soon fell into a coma, where she remained for several weeks.
The cause of the woman’s desperate condition, health officials soon discovered, was a skin-lightening ingredient—mercury—that had been illegally mixed into her pot of face cream.
Deep inside the layers of ice sitting atop the Andes Mountains in Peru is evidence of the earliest human-caused air pollution. Within the core of the 1,200-year-old Quelccaya Ice Cap, scientists have found traces of lead and mercury, the chemicals used after the Spanish occupation, in the silver mines of Potosi, Bolivia.
“People are not living here, they are only surviving,” says Father Maurizio Binaghi as he surveys the sprawling, smoking Dandora landfill site from an elevated position on the grounds of the school he runs in Korogocho slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Dandora is one of Africa’s largest unregulated landfill sites.
“The people who live near the dump have a saying,” says Father Binaghi: “‘I don’t know when I will die, but I do know what I will die from.’”
The eastern highlands of the Democratic Republic of the Congo make up the country’s highest and most rugged region. It is home to a series of mountains 80 to 560 km wide, extending from the Rwenzori Mountain in northeastern Congo through the Virunga volcanic ranges to the Mitumba Mountains.
One year ago, on 16 August 2017, the Minamata Convention on Mercury – a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds – came into force.
A worker holds gold amalgamated with mercury, which will be burned off at a later stage. (Duncan Moore/UN Environment)Driving through the rolling hills and farming villages of western Kenya’s Kakamega County, it’s apparent why the region is known as the country’s green jewel.
We tend to associate polar regions with vast stretches of white ice. Yet we rarely think of the permafrost - a layer of soil or bedrock that has been continuously frozen for years.
By thawing permafrost in the Arctic, climate change is not only freeing vast amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere. It could also stand to release another harmful substance into our air and waters.
According to the latest data from Global Witness, at least 4 environmental defenders are killed every week
“Over 100 countries around the world have so far guaranteed their citizens the right to a healthy and clean environment; however, the enforcement part of such initiatives has been a challenge,” – Arnold Kreilhuber, Deputy Director of the Law Division, UN Environment.
Charito Elcano turned 60 this year, a milestone in a life fraught with ups and downs, challenges and opportunities and – in her case – tragedy. A tragedy that took the life of her brother and son and made her a fierce advocate for non-mercury small-scale gold mining.
Every year up to 15 million artisanal and small-scale gold miners are exposed to toxic mercury fumes. Around one third of these miners are women and children.
As the mercury falls in Geneva with the advent of autumnal chills, the world is for the first time gathering to deal with the rising health impacts of the toxic chemical.
The overall goal of the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership is to protect human health and the environment from the releases of mercury.