Kumamoto, Japan - As the world’s governments were signing a global treaty aimed at phasing out the use and emissions of mercury, Health Care Without Harm and the World Health Organization got straight to work and launched an initiative to achieve the Minamata Convention’s goal to end the manufacture, import and export of mercury-based medical devices by 2020.

“Today marks the culmination of a fifteen-year Health Care Without Harm effort that began with a single hospital in Boston, evolved into a global campaign that engaged the health sector on every continent, and has now resulted in a worldwide treaty” said HCWH President and Co-founder Gary Cohen. “It is also a day to redouble our efforts to phase-out mercury thermometers and blood pressure devices everywhere”.

The Minamata Convention calls for the end of the manufacture, import and export of mercury-containing fever thermometers and sphygmomanometers. HCWH and WHO have been working together for this objective of mercury-free healthcare since 2008 by supporting the deployment of accurate, affordable, and safer non-mercury alternatives around the world.

Over the course of HCWH’s fifteen-year effort and its more recent collaboration with WHO, many countries and regions, including the European Union, the United States, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Mongolia have already embraced mercury-free healthcare. Many more are on track to do so, including Brazil, India, China, South Africa and Mexico.

“The collaborative and committed work carried out by health professionals, NGOs, EU institutions and UN officials throughout Europe has proved instrumental in ensuring safer healthcare systems in Europe and beyond,” said Anja Leetz, HCWH Europe’s Executive Director.

The WHO-HCWH Global Initiative for Mercury-Free Health Care is now gearing up to support health professionals, hospitals, health systems and ministries of health as they seek to implement the Minamata Convention. The Mercury-Free Healthcare Initiative will provide guidance and technical support, while continuing to expand awareness raising and mobilisation in the healthcare around the world. It aims to both shift demand toward alternative devices, and to educate societies as to the overall health impacts of mercury. Ms Leetz adds, "EU Member States now need to show leadership and swiftly ratify the treaty and invest in safe collection and storage schemes”.

While the Minamata Convention is a huge win in terms of greening the health sector, HCWH remains critical of some of the Minamata convention’s shortcomings. This is particularly true when it comes to the treaty’s weak strictures around mercury emissions that come from coal fired power plants—factories that are expanding around the world. “If the expansion of coal-based energy generation is not curbed,” said Dr. Peter Orris, a Senior Adviser to HCWH, “mercury emissions from coal threaten to undermine the mercury reduction the treaty is achieving elsewhere, curtailing its overall health benefits.”

Health Care Without Harm is an international coalition of more than 500 organizations in 53 countries, working to transform the healthcare sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. Please contact Josh Edwards for more information.