It is a well and widely documented fact that mercury is a global environmental problem. The Governing Council of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), has since 2003 called for measures at national, regional and international levels to reduce or eliminate the releases of mercury.
A global treaty on mercury
At the UNEP Governing Council in February 2009, environment ministers of 140 countries unanimously decided to launch negotiations on an international binding convention on mercury in order to reduce global emissions. The convention will include measures aimed at a number of prioritised areas, among which are direct emissions to air and the entire life cycle, such as emissions from coal incineration and industries, trade and use of mercury and mercury-containing products, and waste treatment.
The convention will be binding for countries ratifying it, but various degrees of strict instruments could be used for different parts of the convention.
Sweden and several other countries advocate that it should be possible to add other substances in the future once they have been recognized as being of global concern.
The first negotiations will be held before the summer of 2010, after a preparatory meeting on the process in 2009.
Background
An open-ended working group (OEWG) was established by the UNEP Governing Council in 2007 to review and assess options for enhanced, voluntary measures and new or existing international legal instruments.
A report from the OEWG was provided by the group to the Governing Council in February 2009. The OEWG proposed that a framework for mercury be established and that it should include the whole lifecycle and emissions from industrial processes and energy production. Several alternatives for implementing the framework were presented since the OEWG could not agree whether the framework should be legally binding or not.
In connection with the OEWG in Nairobi in October 2008, the Swedish Chemicals Agency (KemI), under the auspices of the Nordic Council of Ministers, arranged a seminar on the socio-economic costs of global mercury pollution. The seminar was attended by 50 participants from different regions. A new study was presented, which estimates that mercury releases will increase by 25 per cent until 2020 (as compared with 2005), if no major actions are taken to address the global challenges posed by mercury. The cost of reduced IQ in the population worldwide as a result of mercury-contaminated fish, is estimated to USD 10 billion a year.
Report: Socio-economic costs of continuing the status-quo of mercury pollution (2008).
The Nordic Council of Ministers has issued a publication in support of a a legally binding international instrument on mercury.
Nordic Council of Ministers fact sheet 'Mercury: Global challenge - global solutions' (available in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese).
Mercury substitution priority working list - An input to global considerations on mercury management.
Mercury is still a problem in Sweden
Notwithstanding efforts to limit the use and releases of mercury, the deposition is still considerable in Sweden. This is mainly due to long-range air transport from the rest of Europe, but also from other parts of the world.
The largest source to releases of mercury to air on a global scale is coal combustion. Other sources are, for example, smelting works, crematoria (amalgam fillings) and waste incineration (mercury in products).
A significant decrease of emissions related to products has occurred in the EU since the mid 1990s, which is in line with a decreasing use of mercury in technical products, more efficient collection of remaining products and better emission control. However, recent calculations show that mercury in products still contributes significantly to total air emissions of mercury in the EU.
Download the report Product-related emissions of Mercury to Air in the European Union on the website of the Swedish Environmental Research Institute, IVL, (PDF, 262 kB).
Mercury is also released to soil and water from industry emissions, leaching from landfills and by spreading sewage sludge.
Concentrations of mercury in freshwater fish are sometimes so high that the Swedish Food Administration recommends women who are or plan to become pregnant, including breast-feeding women, to eat certain fish only 2-3 times per year in order to avoid effects to the unborn and newborn child.
