Minamata Convention on Mercury was approved — Vaccines where mercury is used as a preservative excluded from treaty

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The Minamata Convention on Mercury was approved on Saturday, 19 January 2013. The new Convention “provides controls and reductions across a range of products, processes and industries where mercury is used, released or emitted. These range from medical equipment such as thermometers and energy-saving light bulbs to the mining, cement and coal-fired power sectors. The treaty, which has been four years in negotiation and which will be open for signature at a special meeting in Japan in October, also addresses the direct mining of mercury, export and import of the metal and safe storage of waste mercury…” Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which convened the negotiations among over 140 member states in Geneva, said at the close:” After complex and often all night sessions here in Geneva, nations have today laid the foundations for a global response to a pollutant whose notoriety has been recognized for well over a century.”  Vaccines where mercury is used as a preservative have been excluded from the treaty as have products used in religious or traditional activities.

– Background to the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to prepare a global legally binding instrument on mercury (INC5) http://unep.org/hazardoussubstances/Mercury/Negotiations/INC5/tabid/3471/Default.aspx
– Global Mercury Assessment 2013 http://www.unep.org/publications/contents/pub_details_search.asp?ID=6282
– Time to Act http://www.unep.org/publications/contents/pub_details_search.asp?ID=6281
http://www.unep.org/NewsCentre/default.aspx?DocumentID=2702&ArticleID=9373&l=en

Editor’s Note: See separate post on GAVI CEO Seth Berkley’s op-ed on the treaty in the New York Times.

PATH said it “coordinated advocacy efforts” to ensure the final treaty language did not restrict access to vaccines containing thiomersal.” PATH noted that it worked in partnership with WHO, UNICEF, the GAVI Alliance, civil society organizations, as well as animal health experts, to educate country representatives involved in the deliberations. In finalizing the treaty language, many country delegations “made strong statements about the essential role of thiomersal-containing vaccines in protecting health.” More than 140 countries and 900 delegates participated in the final negotiations, which were hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme in Geneva, Switzerland.
Posted January 18, 2013.
http://www.path.org/news/an130118-mercury-treaty.php