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Loading ...Espirito Santo Adopts Law on Products Containing Heavy Metals
Thursday, May 21st, 2009Last month Paraná (PR) adopted a law on mercury-containing products, now Espírito Santo (ES) has adopted a law on products containing heavy metals. Which Brazilian state is next, and will it adopt PR’s single-substance approach, or ES’ broader wider net? Points of Confusion Article 1 of the brief ES law requires “suppliers” and distributors of […]
Paraná Adopts Take-Back Law for Mercury-Containing Products
Saturday, April 18th, 2009Earlier this month the governor of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná (PR) signed a brief law that would require the take-back of fluorescent lamps, piles, cell phone batteries “and other artefacts” that contain metallic mercury. Who Collects? The law requires resellers of such products in the state to provide suitable collection bins on their […]
Tienda Inglesa Helps Uruguay Eliminate Mercury Thermometers
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Last year I posted about Health Care Without Harm‘s (Coalición Salud Sin Daño) campaign to get the health care sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to get mercury-containing medical instruments [primarily thermometers and sphygmomanometers (blood pressure monitors)] out of hospitals, clinics and homes. At that time, they were primarily having success in Argentina. […]
Finally, a Chance for a Global Mercury Accord / Por fin, un chance para un acuerdo global sobre el mercurio
Saturday, February 21st, 2009When the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Governing Council (GC) considered and agreed on the draft decision on chemicals management, including mercury, this past Thursday, I was in the room. It’s difficult to say which emotion filled the conference room more — joy or excitement. There was plenty of both. This decision had been many years […]
Getting Mercury Out of Healthcare
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008In July the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA) proudly announced that all public hospitals within city limits had eliminated their inventory of old fashioned mercury thermometers and replaced them with digital ones. Why is that significant? A 2006 study done by CABA’s Environmental Health office found that the City’s public hospitals emitted about 40 […]
Panama Launches Mercury Project
Friday, August 10th, 2007Panama’s National Environment Authority (ANAM) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to launch in that country the Pilot Project for Developing an Inventory and Risk Management of Mercury. The project will draw up a national inventory of emissions and products that contain the heavy […]