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Governmental and scientific leaders met in March to discuss the global risk of mercury poisoning.
By Yuyang Wang ’24
Staff Writer
According to a report published by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the neurotoxin mercury exists in multiple facets of people’s lives. The EPA also reported that the ingestion of large amounts of mercury can have serious negative health effects, particularly impacting the nervous system. Symptoms of mercury poisoning include tremors, insomnia, memory loss, headaches, muscle weakness and, in extreme cases, death. To address this global challenge, representatives from state governments, United Nations agencies, academia and civil society gathered in Bali, Indonesia at the second segment of the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury in March, according to the Minamata Convention’s website.
The World Health Organization stated that there are two primary groups of people who are at high risk of mercury consumption. The first is unborn fetuses, for whom methylmercury — an organic compound that accumulates in fish — exposure can lead to nervous system and adverse brain effects. This exposure can come from the womb itself when the pregnant person consumes of fish or shellfish. The second at-risk group is populations occupationally exposed to high levels of mercury on a regular basis, such as subsistence fishing communities. According to research led by research scientist Raphael A. Lavoie, the Northwest Pacific, Western Central Pacific and Eastern India Oceans are the three regions that have the highest overall mercury export. These regions account for 60 percent of global mercury exposure. As explained in Lavoie’s paper, “These zones are where coastal population density is high and where marine resources represent a significant proportion of the human diet, harvest or trade commodities.”
The Minamata Convention’s official website introduces itself as “the most recent global agreement on environment and health, adopted in 2013.” The website also shares the origins of the Convention’s name, explaining, “It is named after the bay in Japan where, in the mid-20th century, mercury-tainted industrial wastewater poisoned thousands of people, leading to severe health damage that became known as the ‘Minamata disease.’”
Preventing mercury exposure
The fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury took place from March 21-25, 2022. According to updates published by the Minamata Convention’s official website, the convention outlined several steps to prevent mercury exposure to global populations, including the following:
“Eight mercury-added products such as compact fluorescent lamps, cold cathode fluorescent lamps, photograph film and paper, and propellant for satellites” will be phased out.
Dental amalgam, a form of mercury sometimes used to treat dental cavities, will be phased down via statewide bans. Convention members agreed to add two more measures to save patients from the use of mercury in various forms of dental practices.
Gender will be a factor in “all activities, projects and programs undertaken under the Convention, including the development of a gender action plan based on an already presented roadmap.”
Locating mercury-filled products
Mercury can be found in numerous day-to-day products and in many commonly frequented environments. There are several ways humans may be exposed to mercury on a daily basis, including the following:
1. Fish consumption
According to World Wildlife, seafood is the main source of protein for more than three billion people worldwide. According to the WHO, large predatory fish such as sharks, swordfish, tuna and marlin tend to have particularly high mercury levels due to “bioaccumulation” of mercury in the food chain, their foods contain high quantities of mercury. Thus, people who eat a lot of seafood may be exposed to high levels of methylmercury.
Indigenous communities in many parts of the world, especially those living in the Arctic, have experienced mercury poisoning from eating marine animals. According to the United Nations Environment Programme Global Mercury Assessment in 2018, seafood consumption among Indigenous groups is likely to be 15 times higher per capita than that of non-Indigenous groups.
2. Cosmetics
According to Rebecca Dancer, a contributing beauty writer for Allure, mercury can be found in beauty products, especially skin-lightening products. While many countries have enacted laws banning mercury in cosmetics, others have yet to do so. There have also been cases of mercury contamination in products offered by some major online retailers such as Amazon and eBay. To avoid exposure to toxic mercury, consumers should buy products from reliable suppliers and make sure they are well-sealed and properly labeled. Dancer’s article provides more information on this topic.
3. Small-scale mining
UNEP reported that artisanal and small-scale gold miners often use mercury to separate and purify gold and that much of the mercury used ends up in the natural environment. According to the UNEP, artisanal and small-scale mining released about 800 tonnes of mercury into the air in 2015, which accounted for about 38 percent of global emissions, and about 1,200 tonnes into terrestrial and freshwater bodies. Mercury poisoning poses a serious and immediate health threat for 12 to 15 million miners worldwide, according to UNEP. Reducing mercury emissions from mining is a key objective of the Minamata Convention, which requires countries with individual and small-scale gold mining to develop national action plans to reduce or eliminate mercury in the industry, according to Earth Negotiations Bulletin.
4. Burning Coals
Coal burning not only contributes to air pollution and the climate crisis but is also a major source of anthropogenic mercury emissions. The 2018 Global Mercury Assessment found that burning coal and other forms of fossil fuels and biomass is responsible for about 24 percent of global mercury emissions. Although coal contains only a small amount of mercury, as the global economy has grown, so has coal-fired power, resulting in the release of more and more mercury into the air. However, enforcing emissions standards for medical waste incinerators and municipal waste combustors has reduced mercury emissions from power plants by over 95 percent, according to the EPA.
5. Dental Amalgam
For more than 100 years, mercury has been one of the main ingredients in dental amalgam, the mixture that dentists use to fill cavities in patients’ teeth, according to the FDA. Although the threat to patient health posed by amalgam may be negligible on an individual level, mercury in amalgam can lead to the gradual accumulation of toxic elements in our environment. To address this challenge, the Minamata Convention proposed nine specific measures to promote “the use of best environmental practices in dental facilities to reduce releases of mercury” worldwide. Steps included setting national targets to reduce the use of amalgam, promoting the use of mercury-free alternatives and supporting better practices in managing mercury waste, according to the Minamata Convention on Mercury.