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HCWH Blog: Global Mercury Free Health Care by 2020!

Geneva  — 

Last week in Geneva, the world’s governments finalized text for a global legally binding treaty on mercury, the bio-accumulative heavy metal that is poisoning the world’s fish supply, threatening public health and the environment. Among other measures, the treaty text mandates an end to the manufacture, import and export of mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers by 2020. This is a major victory for those working to green the health sector around the world.

HHI members have been in the forefront of this effort from the get-go. U.S. hospitals and systems— many of whom subsequently started HHI-- were some of the first in the world to go mercury-free, substituting with safe, accurate and affordable digital alternatives under the banner of Hospitals for a Healthy Environment, which subsequently became HHI member, Practice Greenhealth. HHI member Health Care Without Harm, which helped lead this effort, also successfully campaigned to get mercury thermometers out of pharmacies. Today it is virtually impossible to buy a mercury thermometer in the U.S., or to find one in most hospitals. Dozens of states have laws on the books banning or severely restricting these devices.

In 2005 HCWH went global with this effort working with hospitals, health systems and ministries of health in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe for mercury-free health care. In 2007 the EU banned mercury-thermometers. In 2008 HCWH launched a joint Global Initiative for Mercury-free Health Care with the World Health Organization (www.mercuryfreehealthcare.org). By 2010 thousands of hospitals in developing countries were going mercury-free and several nations began implementing national phase-out policies. Last year the EU mandated a phase-out of all mercury blood pressure devices. All of this laid the groundwork for the world's governments to agree to the 2020 phase-out of these devices along with other products such as mercury-containing batteries and fluorescent lamps with high mercury content (note: up to 10 years in exemptions can be granted to governments who are truly struggling to make the transition).

Despite such gains, defeat was almost snatched from the jaws of victory. In the 11th hour, a couple of months before the Geneva round of negotiations, the U.S. Government was wavering on medical devices. Enter HHI members HCWH, Kaiser Permanente, Catholic Health Initiatives, Advocate Healthcare and Dignity Health, who wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, advocating for a "clear and rapid timetable for substitution." This letter helped tip the scales and consolidate the US position for global mercury-free healthcare. On January 19th the final gavel came down and the deal was done!

Other parts of the global mercury treaty, which is to be named the Minamata Convention (albeit under protest from Minamata victims' groups), leave much to be desired; in its current form the treaty may not actually reduce the overall global burden of mercury which comes primarily from the growing number of coal fired power plants and the worldwide expansion of small scale gold mining. Despite this ongoing threat to local and global environmental health from mercury, the treaty, which will be signed in Japan in October, is an important step forward and can be built upon in coming years. The decision on thermometers and sphygmomanometers, along with an agreement to slowly phase-down the use of dental amalgam around the world are big victories for a more environmentally friendly health sector that merit celebration and congratulations to all involved.

Heath Care without Harm, an international coalition of more than 500 organizations in 53 countries, is working to transform the health care sector, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. To learn more about HCWH's work, visit our website at www.noharm.org, our YouTube channel at HCwithoutharm, and our twitter feed at hcwithoutharm.