Kumamoto, Japan (PRWEB) October 11, 2013

As the worlds governments were signing a global treaty aimed at phasing out the use and emissions of mercury, Health Care Without Harm and the World Health Organization launched an initiative to achieve the Minamata Conventions goal to end the manufacture, import and export of mercury-based medical devices by 2020.

Today marks the culmination of a fifteen-year Health Care Without Harm effort that began with a single hospital in Boston, evolved into a global campaign that engaged the health sector on every continent, and has now resulted in a worldwide treaty, said HCWH President and co-founder Gary Cohen. It is also a day to redouble our efforts to phase-out mercury thermometers and blood pressure devices everywhere.

The Minamata Convention calls for the end of the manufacture, import and export of mercury-containing fever thermometers and sphygmomanometers. HCWH and WHO have been working together for this objective of mercury-free health care since 2008 by supporting the deployment of accurate, affordable, and safer non-mercury alternatives around the world.

Over the course of HCWHs fifteen-year effort and its more recent collaboration with WHO, many countries and regions, including the European Union, the United States, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Mongolia have already embraced mercury-free health care. Many more are on track to do so, including Brazil, India, China, South Africa and Mexico.

The tireless and committed work of nurses, doctors, and hospital leaders, along with NGOs, government and UN officials, has shown that switching to mercury-free health care is accurate, affordable, and also inevitable, said Josh Karliner, HCWH Director of Global Projects. The treaty enshrines this inevitability.

The WHO-HCWH Global Initiative for Mercury-Free Health Care is now gearing up to support health professionals, hospitals, health systems and ministries of health as they seek to implement the Minamata Convention. The Mercury-Free Health Care Initiative will provide guidance and technical support, while continuing to expand awareness raising and mobilization in the health care around the world. It aims to both shift demand toward alternative devices, and to educate societies as to the overall health impacts of mercury.

While the Minamata Convention is a huge win in terms of greening the health sector, HCWH remains critical of some of the Minamata conventions shortcomings. This is particularly true when it comes to the treatys weak strictures around mercury emissions that come from coal fired power plantsfactories that are expanding around the world. If the expansion of coal-based energy generation is not curbed, said Dr. Peter Orris, a Senior Adviser to HCWH, mercury emissions from coal threaten to undermine the mercury reduction the treaty is achieving elsewhere, curtailing its overall health benefits.

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Health Care Without Harm, World Health Organization to Help Achieve Convention Goal of Ending Manufacture, Import and ...