THE environmental justice group BAN Toxics calls on the Philippine government to ratify the Minamata Convention to protect the people and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury exposure.
The group participated in the recently concluded 3rd Conference of Parties of the Minamata Convention in Geneva, Switzerland and co-released the ZMWG report on skin-lightening creams.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is an international treaty that is designed to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.
The Duterte administration must follow through on its promise to protect the health of every Filipino by ratifying the Minamata Convention. This will ensure that we are protected from the dangerous effects of mercury, especially from those that are coming from human activities.
The Philippines is one of the 128 countries that signed the Minamata Convention in 2013.
According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the instrument for the ratification of the Minamata Convention was already transmitted to the Office of the President awaiting his signature. The Convention came into force in August 2017.
Human activity contributes to the largest portion of mercury release. Every year, as much as 9,000 tons of mercury are released into the atmosphere, in water and on land.