The Dominican Sisters of Hope, supported by Consumers for Dental Choice and the Mercury Policy Project, presented a resolution calling on the Danaher (DHR: NYSE) corporation to transition out of manufacturing mercury fillings at the company’s annual shareholder meeting at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, May 5 (see press release). Danaher owns Kerr, the largest manufacturer of mercury amalgam. “Mercury is highly toxic, can cause permanent harm to a fetus, to a child’s developing brain or an adult’s kidneys,” said Valerie Heinonen, o.s.u., a consultant in corporate responsibility who will be representing the Dominican Sisters of Hope, which owns a block of Danaher shares. “The underserved are at great risk because of the continued use of mercury amalgam. We think it is wrong to put them at such risk when there are suitable alternatives available.”
MPP’s Director is Appointed Interim Chair of New Mercury Storage-Supply Partnership
The first meeting of the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership Advisory Group (PAG) was held March 31-April 2nd in Geneva, Switzerland. At this meeting Michael Bender, director of MPP and representing ZMWG, was appointed interim chair of a new proposed Partnership related to surplus mercury and supply issues. The PAG recognizes that mercury storage is closely linked to supply issues, and is therefore actively seeking a government representative to take the lead for the storage-supply partnership by October 2009. In the interim, ZMWG will update the PAG business plan, encourage progress on projects, and expand membership, while working collaboratively with UNEP to identify a government lead or co-lead for the Partnership. ZMWG’s letter further outlines the next steps forward for the Storage-Supply Partnership, with which UNEP concurs.
MPP Submits Comments on FDA’s Flawed Fish Consumption Risk-Benefit Assessment
Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a draft “Quantitative Risk and Benefit Assessment of Commercial Fish Consumption,” for public comment. Attention to the unscientifc nature of the FDA’s assessment was contained in a letter to the FDA submitted by MPP and 10 other public interest groups and experts in the field.
MPP also submitted lengthy Technical Comments on the FDA draft. MPP’s comments were prepared by its consultant, Dr. Edward Groth, who worked as a senior scientist for Consumers Union for nearly 25 years on environmental health, food safety and risk communication. Dr. Groth emphasized, “While FDA’s analysis suggests that the benefits outweigh the risks for the average person, that point is misleading. The focus instead should be on ways to ensure benefits while minimizing risks—a “win/win” solution—by educating consumers to choose low-mercury fish.” Using data from the FDA’s own analysis, MPP’s comments show that tuna fish alone accounts for 37 percent of all the mercury in the American diet, and about 20 other varieties of fish and shellfish are also relatively high in mercury. But there is plenty of good news: Two-thirds of the total market for fish and shellfish is low in mercury, and 9 of the 11 top-selling items are low-mercury choices.
Shift in U.S. Policy Opens Door to Global Mercury Agreement
A dramatic reversal of the U.S. position on worldwide mercury pollution cleared the way for the development of a globally binding treaty on mercury through the work of an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) over the next four years. (See press release.) At the UNEP Governing Council meeting in Nairobi, the U.S. delegation endorsed negotiations in 2009 for a new global treaty to control mercury contamination. “The Obama administration has clearly shown a new day has dawned for U.S. leadership and engagement with the rest of the world,” said Bender, MPP’s Director and co-coordinator of ZMWG. “And the momentum created by the U.S. galvanized other governments around the world to step up to address the global mercury crisis.”
During the February’s UNEP Governing Council (GC) meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, 120 countries expressed support for a legally binding agreement on mercury. The GC Decision charges UNEP with the responsibility to conduct, concurrent with the work of the INC, an inventory of the levels of existing emissions controls, and an analysis of the potential to achieve further mercury emission reductions. The ZMWG plans to follow the issue closely and contribute to the INC process.
For additional information, see: Obama Shifts U.S. Policy to Back Global Mercury Control Treaty
Mercury is Global Health Concern Warranting Immediate UN Action
As the world’s governments convene next week to discuss developing a legally binding treaty on mercury, over twenty groups from around the world have co-released a new MPP report calling attention to the global human health hazards caused by mercury in fish and fish-eating marine mammals. The study, released by the international Zero Mercury Working Group, indicates that the health impacts of methylmercury in fish and fish-eating marine mammals are substantial, and demand an effective response from governments and the United Nations. “Mercury contamination of fish and mammals is a global public health concern,” said MPP Director Bender. “Our study of fish tested in different locations around the world shows that widely accepted international exposure levels for methylmercury are exceeded, often by wide margins, in each country and area covered.”
According to the report, “Mercury in Fish: An Urgent Global Health Concern” (11MB), the risk is greatest for populations whose per capita fish consumption is high, and in areas where pollution has elevated the average mercury content of fish. But methylmercury hazards also exist where per capita fish consumption and average mercury levels in fish are comparatively low. In cultures where fish-eating marine mammals are part of the traditional diet, mercury in these animals can add substantially to total dietary exposure. For additional information, see www.zeromercury.org.
MPP and Allies Urge President Obama to Support Treaty to Reduce Mercury Exposure
At a meeting this morning with the Department of State, MPP and other representatives of various groups urged the United States Government to support a legally binding treaty to reduce mercury exposure next week at a UNEP Governing Council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The groups plan on distributing a letter signed by 50 U.S.-based groups and another 40 abroad urging President Barack Obama (and copied to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, CEQ Director Nancy Sutley and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson) to support a global mercury treaty. “The upcoming United Nations meeting will provide the Obama administration with its first opportunity on the world stage to demonstrate a real change in the U.S. approach to international environmental issues,” said Michael Bender, MPP director (see press release). “We strongly recommend an approach that embraces cooperation and leadership, rather than the obstruction and inaction we have seen from the previous administration.”
MPP and allies release new risk and impact study
A new international study released today by MPP, Zero Mercury Working Group, GAIA and Ban Toxics! shows how the burning of mercury-containing products is increasing the risk of environmental and health impacts around the world. The new study states that incineration and burning send upwards of 200 tons of mercury into the atmosphere every year, comprising 10 percent of the mercury that enters the earth’s atmosphere through human activities. “Based on this report’s findings, we must recognize that the amount of mercury released into the atmosphere through incineration and burning is much more significant than previously suspected, representing at least twice the emissions as previously thought,” said Michael Bender, MPP Director
The study, entitled “Mercury Rising: Reducing Global Emissions from Burning Mercury-Added Products,” underscores the harmful environmental and health impacts posed by incineration or burning of mercury-added products (such as discarded fluorescent light bulbs, thermostats, switches and thermometers) in incinerators, landfill fires and open burning of domestic waste is a significant contributor of mercury and other toxics to both local and global mercury pool.
The report recommends that, at the upcoming February meeting in Nairobi, of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), establish an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the purpose of negotiating a free-standing legally binding instrument on mercury.In the interim period before such an instrument becomes effective, the report recommends to UNEP to take the following action:
- Assume responsibility for the awareness-raising, analytical, technical and legal support activities necessary to encourage manufacturers of mercury-added products, and countries where such manufacturers are located, to identify and implement the actions.
- Recognize that combustion of mercury-added products in incinerators, landfill fires and open burning of domestic waste is a significant contributor of mercury and other toxics in both local and global ecosystems, and urge countries to take steps to stop these practices and move towards safe, just, sustainable and more environmentally-sound alternatives
New Report Shows Need for Strong FDA Advice on Mercury in Fish
Today, a parent of a mercury-poisoning victim joined a medical doctor and an advocacy group in refuting the FDA’s new proposal to stop warning pregnant women and children about mercury in fish. In 2004, the FDA joined EPA in releasing advice to restrict the species and amounts of fish eaten by women of childbearing age and children due to exposure risks to mercury. On Friday, in a draft report submitted to the Bush White House, the FDA indicated that they were planning not only to rescind that advice, but recommend that sensitive populations eat more mercury-contaminated fish.
“Talk about getting hooked on fish stories,” said Michael Bender, MPP, Director of the Mercury Policy Project, which just released a new case study exposure report. “FDA has really gone overboard this time by casting out the science and reeling in the industry ‘line’ instead,” Bender said, referring to an industry report released prior to the FDA report that reached strikingly similar conclusions. “Real people have been sickened by mercury in fish, demonstrating the importance of strong FDA advice on mercury in fish.” The new MPP report, Over the Limit, shares stories of people who each ate enough store-bought fish to suffer mercury’s effects, according to their physicians. From New Jersey to Wisconsin to California, these stories show that seafood contamination is a very real problem that should not be ignored.
Study Reveals Elevated Mercury Levels in Bald Eagles
Less than two years after the removal of bald eagles from the U.S.’s endangered species list, a research group in Maine has found an elevated levels of mercury in the blood and feathers of bald eagles in the Catskill Park region of New York. This morning the Nature Conservancy-NY, along with their partners at the Biodiversity Research Institute and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, released a report about the impact of bald eagle mercury study (see summary). An executive summary and the full report can be found at BRI’s Web site. The New York Times covered the release with a major story in this morning’s Science Section.
MPP Advocates to UNEP for Free-Standing Legally Binding Instrument
Today, at the UNEP North American Civil Society meeting in Washington, DC, MPP, on behalf of the Zero Mercury Working Group, is advocating that the UNEP Governing Council consider and conclude that a free-standing legally binding instrument (LBI) is needed to address the global mercury challenges at its upcoming meeting in Nairobi in February. We strongly believe that the elements of a global mercury framework related to supply (including storage and trade), emission reductions (through the use of best available technology, BAT, or otherwise), and product/process phase-outs in particular will require a legal instrument to be effective for a number of reasons including the following:
- It is the only way to control supply and eliminate global mercury trade while minimizing possibility of conflicts with international trade law
- It will ensure the required substantial global coordination and a level playing field in effectively phasing out the use of mercury in products and processes, and otherwise reducing mercury emissions from industrial sources.
- The legal instrument is the most direct and effective vehicle for prohibiting new undesired activities
- It can elevate the importance of mercury as a priority issue in countries and regions, and facilitate implementation of relevant national legislation.
According to the ZMWG, the provisions of this LBI should include:
- A broad scope that includes those human activities which contribute to the global mercury pollution problem, and addresses the entire lifecycle of mercury.
- Tailored mercury control measures to particular sectors and sources of concern.
- Measures which incorporate the Precautionary Principle, the Polluter Pays Principle, and other relevant Rio Principles.
- Recognition of the role and importance of public interest, health and environmental stakeholders. Mercury has been on the agenda of UNEP GC since 2001. Some progress has taken place since then, both at the political level and on the ground with several projects addressing the mercury crisis. However, it is now high time that a global framework is adopted to coordinate actions to reduce mercury supply, use and emissions of mercury from all global sources of concern. At the latest meeting of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group on Mercury in Nairobi (October 2008), a comprehensive set of elements to be part of a global framework was agreed to by a broad consensus, and this was an important step forward. In addition, an overwhelming majority of countries supported a free-standing legally binding instrument on mercury.