- Department:Comprehensive Planning Division
The Environment Protection Administration, together with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Council of Agriculture, the Ministry of Labor, etc., held the "Inter-Ministerial Conference on the Implementation Results of the United Nations Minamata Convention on Mercury Promotion Plan" on December 2 at the GIS NTU Convention Center. Academics, experts, industries, and NGOs were invited to share mercury reduction and management's implementation results. The inter-ministerial press conference, "Toward Mercury-Free Home," was held from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. to share the latest management achievements with the media. An exhibition hall was open to the public to facilitate the public's understanding of our country's mercury management strategy and the International Convention's implementation results.
Mercury with significant concentrations can cause damage to the brain, nervous system, and organs. To protect people and the environment from the dangers of mercury, the Minamata Convention on Mercury established by the United Nations entered into force on August 16, 2017. Before the Convention taking into effect, the Environmental Protection Administration has followed the international trend of strengthening mercury management and invited the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Council of Agriculture, the Ministry of Labor, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to promote the inter-ministerial "Implementation of the United Nations Minamata Convention on Mercury Promotion Plan." The Executive Yuan approved the plan on June 27, 2016, to reduce the environmental mercury content.
According to the Environment Protection Administration, the Convention stipulates for enhanced control of nine types of mercury-added products from January 1, 2021, including specific batteries, switches and relays, compact fluorescent lamps for general lighting purposes, linear fluorescent lights for general lighting purposes, high-pressure mercury vapor lamps for general lighting purposes, cold cathode fluorescent lamps and external electrode fluorescent lamps for electronic displays, cosmetics, pesticides/biocides/topical antiseptics, and non-electronic measuring devices. For these nine products, our country, through inter-ministerial efforts, has amended relevant laws and regulations to prohibit the manufacture and import of these products from January 1, 2021, which is in line with the Convention schedule.
The inter-ministerial results conference was kicked off by the Environmental Protection Administration's introduction of the United Nations Minamata Convention on Mercury Promotion Plan. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Council of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Labor shared their mercury management results in dental amalgam and Chinese medicine, agriculture-related management testing, and occupational safety-related to mercury management, respectively, which are of concern to the public. Finally, the Environmental Protection Administration reported on the results of source reduction of mercury-added products, remediation sites, stationary pollution source emissions and removals, environmental monitoring, development of testing methods, and effluent water and environmental water management.
The Environmental Protection Administration finally states that the United Nations set the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, with the schedule including an assessment of the global development trend of chemicals management, and our country's implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury has achieved initial results. In the future, we will continue to promote a safe chemical environment through inter-ministerial and industry-academia-research collaboration and work together with the international community to achieve sustainable development goals on earth. For more information, please visit the Minamata Convention website at https://topic.moenv.gov.tw/hg/mp-3.html.
