Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
selenium found in the Inuit is attenuating the toxic effects of mercury. High blood pressure
in childhood is an important indicator of adult hypertension and methylmercury exposure
is a potential risk factor. The Faroese child cohort study also found associations between
prenatal mercury exposure with increased blood pressure and reduced heart rate variability
at seven years of age. The effects persisted at 14 years but with less severity.
The implications of the cohort studies were a powerful incentive for the negotiators
working to create the global convention on mercury under the UNEP. Not only was the
Arctic ecosystem being impacted by mercury emissions from elsewhere in the globe, but
health effects were also being detected in Arctic people, resulting from exposure experien-
ced before they were born. The intergovernmental negotiating committee met five times:
in Stockholm, Sweden, in June 2010; in Chiba, Japan, in January 2011; in Nairobi, Kenya,
in October/November 2011; in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in June/July 2012; and in Geneva,
Switzerland,inJanuary2013.Atthislastsession,137governments-ledbychairFernando
Lugris from Uruguay - agreed to the final text for a new global treaty on mercury. The
resulting agreement, now known as the Minamata Convention, was formerly adopted as
international law on October 10, 2013, in Kumamoto, Japan, but at the time of writing has
not entered into force.
The Minamata Convention has taken a mercury life cycle approach to international
controls that impacts mercury use in many diverse sectors, comprising, for example, coal-
fired power generation, construction, electronics, heavy manufacturing, wastes, health and
cosmetics industries. The convention also includes control measures on air emissions, a
phaseout of existing mines and measures aimed at reducing emissions from small-scale
gold mining and artisanal industries. There will be a phasedown of the use of dental fillings
using mercury amalgam.
The preamble of the convention acknowledges the voice of the Arctic Messenger by
recognition of “the particular vulnerabilities of Arctic ecosystems and indigenous com-
munities because of the biomagnification of mercury and contamination of traditional
foods, and concern about indigenous communities more generally” and “health concerns,
especially in developing countries, resulting from exposure to mercury of vulnerable popu-
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