The Obama administration called for an end to years of US policy by calling for a treaty to cut mercury pollution, which they described as the world’s leading chemical contaminant.
Each year, some 6,000 tons of mercury enter the food chain via predatory fish. The majority, about a third, of mercury comes from runoff from power stations and coal fires. Fish such as tuna are the most commonly affected species.
Mercury attacks young children and fetuses most and can cause birth defects and neurological disorders, brain damage and peeling skin.
The deputy assistant secretary of state for environmental and sustainable development, Daniel Reifsnyder, told environmental ministers in Nairobi Kenya that the US wants to limit mercury use beginning this year and ending in three.
“We’re prepared to help lead in developing a globally legally binding instrument,” he said. “It is clear mercury is the most important global chemical issue facing us today that calls for immediate action.”
This shows a complete “180 degree turn around” from the Bush administration said Michael Bender. Bender is the co-coordinator of the Zero Mercury Working Group, and global coalition of some 75 environmental groups dedicated to the elimination of the use of mercury.
“The change is like night and day. The Bush administration opposed any international legal agreements on mercury and President (Barack) Obama is in office less than one month and is already supporting a global agreement,” he said.
Bender’s group has had more discussions with the Obama administration over the past few weeks than the eight years during the Bush administration on mercury control. The US government has included many of their ideas in the proposal presented in Nairobi.
In addition, mercury is used in small scale mining operations and chemical production; the toxin can travel thousands of miles via air or water.
The Food and Drug Administration in America has told expectant mothers to limit their consumption of Albacore tuna to six ounces a week or twelve ounces of “light” tuna a week. The health effects of the tuna and its effects are still being scientifically debated. In California, authorities have been locked in a five year legal battle to make tuna companies place warning labels on their products about the health risks involved with consumption of fish with potentially harmful levels of mercury.
In spite of all the warnings, there is very little public awareness of the dangers of mercury in seafood. In the state of Idaho , a food bank distributed approximately ninety-six ounces of fish in food baskets given to families. This is forty-eight times more than a child that weighs under thirty pounds is advised to eat monthly, according to the Health and Welfare advisory.
Furthermore, there is even less awareness in developing countries where small mining operations use mercury to pan for gold and where fishermen eat contaminated fish or provide it to high end sushi restaurants.
When probed about mercury levels in a sushi feast by an Associated Press reporter, Peter Omoga, manager at a Japanese restaurant in the Kenyan capital, he asked “Murky? Maki?”
Substitutes for mercury exist in almost every industry except coal fueled power plants, which accounts for more than fifty percent of the mercury emissions around the world. This complicates efforts especially in countries that rely heavily on coal for their power needs.
To help reduce the use of mercury, clean up contaminated areas and find environmentally friendly alternatives, the US drafted a proposal that would form a committee in conjunction with the UN environmental program to help countries in these efforts. The European Union has already banned the exportation of mercury beginning in 2011; the US has a similar ban starting in 2013 which was implemented by President Obama while he was a Senator.
Bender has said that mercury levels around the world have increased two to three times over the past two hundred years. Advocacy groups that have worked on influencing policy change have welcomed the new US policies which they say could help encourage other countries, such as Canada, to also change their national policies on mercury use and elimination.
“Given that the United States has pushed the door of resistance in a sense, that will lead others to follow,” said Susan Egan Keane of the Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council.