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140 nations to phase out mercury by 2020
Source: Hindustan Times, http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/140-nations-to-phase-out-mercury-, Date: , 2013
India agreed to a global treaty on
Saturday to ban use of mercury within the next 7 years, a decision that could
change the way you use your medical devices and reduce mercury in air.
Mercury based blood pressure measuring machines, thermometers, tooth fillings
and its global trade will have to be banned by 2020, 140 countries agreed in
Geneva at the United Nations sponsored conference. Its use religious purposes
such as building Shiv Lingams has, however, been allowed.
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The treaty brings mercury emissions from coal and cement based industries under
a regulatory regime for reduction and allows developing countries for seek
money from rich nations to replace existing technologies with better ones. The
new power plants will have to install cleaner technologies, says the Minamata
Convention on Mercury, named after a Japanese city.Â
It is doable, said Ravi
Aggarwal of NGO Toxic Link. Just last month, the Centre had decided to make its
hospitals mercury free. Delhi government had issued similar instructions to its
hospitals two years ago. Â
Mercury is still in high use in India’s rural health sector. Globally, the
chemical that can cause immature deaths is use extensively in gold mining in
industry in African and Latin America.
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