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
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
