Tools and Resources

• Mercury Elimination Guides for Hospitals
• Dealing With Mercury Spills
• Training Video on Mercury Waste in Hospitals
• Mercury Vapors
• Websites
• Model Policies
• Reports, Articles, and Guides

Mercury Elimination Guides for Hospitals

In order to scale-up the replacement of mercury–based medical devices around the world, HCWH has put together a guide that systematizes the basic steps in mercury substitution.

• In English
• En Español
• Em Português
• 

New Training Video on Mercury Waste in Hospitals

Dealing With Mercury Spills

This video on safe disposal of spilled mercury was produced HCWH's Strategic Partner in South Asia, Toxics Link.

Mercury Vapors

Mercury vapors are toxic and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Nevertheless, they do create a shadow when exposed to a short wave ultraviolet light in a fluorescent background.  enlarge video

Websites

• Mercury Free Health Care,
  A WHO-HCWH Global Initiative
• UNEP Mercury Programme
• Zero Mercury Working Group

Model Policies

• International: WHO Policy on Mercury in Health Care (pdf)
• International: World Medical Association’s Resolution 2008  (pdf) Calling for the Substitution of Mercury-based Medical Devices
• European Union: Ban on Sale of Mercury-Measuring Instruments (pdf)
• Philippines: Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued a Memorandum Circular 2010-140  (pdf) enjoining all provincial governors, city mayors, municipal mayors, DILG regional directors and others concerned to ensure compliance to the Department of Health AO 21.
• India: Guidelines (pdf) issued by India’s Central Government in May 2010 to phase-out mercury containing equipment from all Government-run Hospitals
• Argentina: Administrative Order 274/2010 (pdf) banning mercury sphygmomanometers
• Argentina: Resolution 139/2009 (pdf) of the Minister of Health Ending Purchase of Mercury Medical Devices
• Philippines: Administrative Order 21 issued by the Philippine's Department of Health in 2008 calling for the phase-out of mercury based medical devices across the country by 2010
• Taiwan Republic of China: the Environmental Protection Administration of Taiwan Republic of China announced in March 2008 a national policy to phase-out of mercury thermometers
• Cuba: Since the 1980s, Cuba has replaced (pdf in Spanish) most of its mercury sphygmomanometers with aneroid devices purchased from China
• Province of Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa: Directives banning the purchase of mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers. See the Administrative Order (pdf in Spanish) regarding the phasing-out of mercury sphygmomanometers and the Administrative Order (pdf in Spanish) regarding the phasing-out of products that contain mercury in healthcare institutions
• Chaco, Argentina: Commitment (pdf in Spanish) of the Provincial Government of Chaco to making all of the 8 hospitals and 296 clinics and health centers under its jurisdiction mercury-free
• Mexico City: The Health Secretariat of Mexico city joined (pdf in Spanish) the HCWH-WHO Global Initiative to substitute mercury-based medical devices with safer, economically viable alternatives
• Buenos Aires City government: Policy currently implemented (pdf in Spanish) to phase out mercury-based medical devices in 33 major hospitals and 38 smaller health care centers
• Dehli, India: The city government is developing a plan to phase-out mercury based medical devices in hospitals under its jurisdiction
• City of São Paulo, Brazil: The City of São Paulo is the first in Brazil to eliminate (pdf in Spanish) the use of devices containing mercury in its public hospitals (Document provided by Dr. Cecilia Zavariz)
• Buenos Aires: Final Declaration (pdf) of the First Latin American Conference on the Elimination of Mercury in Health Care
• Johannesburg: Final Declaration  (pdf) of the First Southern Africa Conference on Promoting Alternatives to Mercury on Health Care
• Manilla: Final Declaration (pdf) of the First Southern Asian Conference on Mercury in Health Care
• New Delhi: Final Declaration (pdf) on the First South Asian Conference on Mercury in Health Care

Reports, Articles, and Guides

• Global —  HCWH has produced a fact sheet that makes the case for a treaty that mandates a rapid global phase-out of mercury thermometers and blood pressure devices. Download Fact Sheet
• Guidance on the Cleanup, Temporary or Intermediate Storage and Transport of Mercury Waste from Healthcare Facilities
• Toward the Tipping Point: WHO-HCWH Global Initiative to Substitute Mercury-Based Medical Devices in Health Care. A Two-Year Progress Report (pdf)
• The End of an Era: The Phase Out of Mercury Blood Pressure Devices in the United States (pdf)
• Moving Towards Mercury–Free Health Care: Substituting Mercury–Based Medical Devices in India (pdf)
• The Global Movement for Mercury-Free Health Care Report (pdf)
• Alternatives to the Mercury Sphygmomanometer (Abstract)  (pdf) (by Susan Buchanan, Peter Orris and Joshua Karliner), Journal of Public Health Policy.
• Mercury Sphygmomanometers in Healthcare and the Feasibility of Alternatives, by the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR). (pdf)
• Report of the Southeast Asia Conference on Mercury in Health Care (pdf)
• World Medical Journal article on Mercury-Free Health Care (pdf)
• WHO: Affordable Technology: Blood Pressure Measuring Devices for Low Resource Settings (pdf)
• Lurking Menace: Mercury in the Health-Care Sector (pdf)
• Mercury-Free Blood Pressure Measurement Equipment: Experiences in the Swedish Healthcare Sector (pdf)
• Guide to Mercury-Free Alternatives in Southeast Asia (pdf)
• World Medical Association Statement on Reducing the Global Burden of Mercury (pdf)