Vietnam has officially joined the United Nations Minamata Convention
on Mercury with a view to minimise the metal’s significant adverse
impacts on human health and the environment.
Deputy Minister
of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang, on behalf of the Vietnamese
Government, signed the Convention in Japan on October 11.
The
Convention issues regulations on the production, export-import, trade,
distribution, transport, usage, storage and disposal of mercury. Treaty
members are responsible for working out their own agenda for 2020–2025
to end all mercury mining.
Addressing the signing ceremony,
Deputy Minister Quang called for technical and financial support among
member nations to reach the Convention goals for a safer world.
According to Dr. Phung Ha, head of the Ministry of Industry and
Trade’s Department of Chemicals, Vietnam will be able to learn from
global experiences in mercury management and work with industrialised
nations on developing mercury-free products and technologies to minimise
its discharge.
Established in 2009, the Minamata
Convention on Mercury is named after the Japanese city where tens of
thousands of people were poisoned – around 2,000 of whom have since died
– by eating fish and shellfish taken from waters polluted by mercury
discharged from a local factory.
Mercury is now widely used in
Vietnam in industrial production and medical equipment but it has yet to
be closely controlled.
As a national agency in charge of
managing chemical activities, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is
pursuing the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management – a
policy framework to foster the sound management of chemicals. It has
assigned representatives to attend the Inter-Governmental Committee for
negotiating the Convention since 2010.-VNA