http://www.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20130120a4.html
Japan, 140 countries adopt groundbreaking treaty to cut mercury emissions
AP, Kyodo
GENEVA - More than 140 nations including Japan on Saturday adopted
the first legally binding international treaty aimed at reducing
mercury emissions, capping four years of negotiations on what limits
to set on the use of the highly toxic metal.
The accord was adopted after all-night negotiations that capped a
week of talks in Geneva, according to U.N. environmental officials
and diplomats.
In accordance with Japan's proposal, the treaty will be named the
Minamata Convention after the city in Kumamoto Prefecture that has
given its name to a mercury-poisoning disease caused by the discharge
of wastewater laced with the harmful heavy metal by a local chemical
plant. The facility was operated by chemicals maker Chisso Corp.
The draft document for the treaty will be adopted at an international
conference to be held in the prefecture in October. Fifty nations
must ratify the pact before it enters into force, which officials
expect to take approximately three to four years.
"To agree on global targets is not easy to do," Achim Steiner,
executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, told a news
conference. "There was no delegation here that wished to leave Geneva
without drafting a treaty."
The draft document's preamble notes the need to prevent future damage
based on the lessons learned from Minamata disease, a clause proposed
by the Japanese government. The neurological disorder caused by acute
mercury poisoning was officially recognized for the fist time in the
1950s.
In principle, the treaty would ban the manufacture, export and import
of products that contain a certain level of mercury, such as
thermometers and fluorescent lights. It also seeks to reduce the
discharge of mercury into the air, water and land, to promote its
proper storage and disposal, and to cut down on the use and discharge
of mercury in the process of gold mining in developing countries.
"We have closed a chapter on a journey that has taken four years of
often intense but ultimately successful negotiations, and opened a
new chapter toward a sustainable future," said Fernando Lugris, the
Uruguayan diplomat who chaired the negotiations.
But some proponents of a new mercury treaty voiced dissatisfaction
over the proposed agreement.
Joe DiGangi, a science adviser with advocacy group International POPs
Elimination Framework, which aims to eradicate persistent organic
pollutants (POPs) through an international network of nongovernmental
organizations, said that while the treaty is "a first step," it is
not stringent enough to achieve its aim of reducing overall emissions
of mercury.
The Japan Times: Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013
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