Health Care Without Harm and the World Health Organization
are co-leading a global initiative to achieve virtual elimination
of mercury-based thermometers and sphygmomanometers over the
next decade and their substitution with accurate, economically
viable alternatives.
The initiative is a component of the UN Environment Programme's
Mercury Products Partnership.
Technical Guidance on Substituting Mercury Thermometers and Sphygmomanometers
HCWH and partner organization Projecto Hospitais Saudaveis organized a series of Mercury Free Health Care seminars in the cities of Salvador, Recife. A third seminar also co-sponsored by the Pan American Health Organization PAHO / WHO, took place in Brasilia and focused in raising awareness about the dangers associated with exposure to mercury and methylmercury in the health care sector.
These seminars are part of a joint effort by several public and private institutions to raise awareness and prepare the health sector to meet the challenge of global phase-out of mercury. Read more (in Portuguese)
In January 2011, the Ministry of Health and the National Emergency Management Agency of Mongolia issued a Joint Order to ban further procurement of the mercury containing thermometers, sphygmomanometers and dental amalgam.
Together with the Join Order, a pilot project to eliminate the use mercury in the local healthcare sector was initiated in 2011 with the support of the World Health Organization. In 2012 this initiative was scaled up: led by the National Public Center’s Toxicology Laboratory, a survey on mercury use and contamination was carried out in 16 tertiary and secondary hospitals in Ulaanbaatar. As a result, 14 hospitals were announced mercury-free and received a Certificate from Mongolia's Vice Minister of Health. Read more
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health has issued a circular instructing all Provincial Health Directors, Regional Health Directors, Hospital Directors and Medical Health Officers to gradually remove mercury-containing equipment from use to minimize the environmental exposure to mercury in accordance with global guidelines. The mercury-containing equipment in hospitals including old thermometers and blood pressure measuring devices (sphygmomanometers) will be replaced by new digital equipment. Read more
Phase-Out Date and Mandate for Mercury Thermometers and Blood Pressure Devices
Geneva — The world’s governments have finalized text for a global legally binding treaty on mercury, the bio-accumulative heavy metal that is poisoning the world’s fish supply, threatening public health and the environment. Among other measures, the treaty text mandates an end to the manufacture, import and export of mercury thermometers and blood pressure devices (sphygmomanometers) by 2020. Read Full Press Release
January 2013
China | Hospital Launches Pilot Project to Eliminate Mercury-Containing Medical Devices
After the successful pilot implementation of the substitution of mercury containing medical devices in Qinhuangdao Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital (QMCHH) launched in August 2011, Qinhuangdao Cerebrovascular Disease Hospital (QCDH) is the second hospital in the city to conduct mercury-containing medical devices substitution.
The project is being supported by international organizations such as Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN) as well as by national organizations such as Qinhuangdao Municipal Committee of China National Democratic Construction Association (QMCCNDCA), Sino-Union Create of Qinhuangdao (SUCQ) and Global Village of Beijing Environmental Education Center (GVB).
Qinhuangdao Cerebrovascular Disease Hospital is one of the few hospitals in China that is conducting mercury-containing medical devices substitution. The announcement is a positive step forward in contributing to global efforts to substitute mercury-based medical devices while protecting China's health professionals, patients and the environment from the negative impacts of mercury.
The launch ceremony of "Zero mercury" in Qinhuangdao Cerebrovascular Disease Hospital conference room
The
Issue
Mercury, one of the world's most ubiquitous
heavy metal neurotoxicants, has been an integral part of many
medical devices, most prominently thermometers and sphygmomanometers.
These devices break or leak with regularity,
adding to the global burden of mercury in the environment
and exposing health care workers to the acute effects of the
metal itself.
The health care sector around the world is
moving to replace mercury-based medical devices with affordable,
accurate and safer alternatives.
Mercury Elimination Guides for Hospitals (available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese)
Training Video on Mercury Waste in Hospitals (produced by HCWH with support from UNEP and the government of Norway)
