Success Stories
The campaign in the Southeast Asia region started as early as 2005. In those days, the danger of mercury in health care was not yet known in the region.
The first Southeast Asia Conference on Mercury held in Manila in 2006 brought the issue to the concerned stakeholders. It was during this conference that Philippine Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III pledged to have a national policy on mercury phase-out in Philippine hospitals.
The following year, Philippine Heart Center, together with St. Paul Hospital in Tuguegarao, Manila Adventist Hospital and San Juan De Dios Hospital, started a mercury phase-out program. In August 11, 2008, Administrative Order 21 of the Department of Health was signed. It ordered the gradual phase-out of all mercury-containing devices in all Philippine hospitals by 2010.
By 2009, more than 50 hospitals have phased-out or are phasing out mercury-containing devices in their hospitals.
The 2009 General Appropriations Act has allocated P13.2 million for the purchase of non-mercury thermometers in the government-controlled hospitals. While the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is set to sign a revised accreditation policy which refused to accredit non-mercury free hospitals.
Key Resources
- EU Mercury Phase Out in Measuring and Control Equipment (pdf) Report from an EU conference held in Brussels in June 2009 focused on sphygmomanometers in healthcare. Report shows that many European countries have already moved away from mercury-based devices.
- Global Mercury Phase-outs:
information on the HCWH website - Global Movement for Mercury-Free Health Care Report (pdf)
- Making Medicine Mercury Free (pdf)
- Manilla Declaration on Mercury-Free Health Care (pdf)
- Mercury-Free Health Care website, a WHO-HCWH Global Initiative
- Mercury Policy Project website
- A New Era: Elimination of Mercury Sphygmomanometers (pdf)
- The Mercury Problem: Fast Facts (pdf)
- Philippines: Dept. of Health Administrative Order (pdf)
- Philippines: Dept. of Interior and Local Government Memorandum (pdf)
- Toward the Tipping Point (pdf)
WHO-HCWH Global Initiative to Substitute Mercury-Based Medical Devices in Health Care. A Two-Year Progress Report
