Reducing mercury use by nearly 370 tons in nine countries, a UN environment agency initiative now plans to scale up efforts in 15 other affected nations, making conditions safer for millions of small-scale miners.
The Governments of Gabon, Jamaica and Sri Lanka have united in a $14 million project to eliminate the use of mercury in skin lightening products – a serious public health issue, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced on Tuesday.
Masami Ogata is a survivor of Minamata Disease, a debilitating illness caused by industrial mercury poisoning, which originated in the Japanese town of the same name in the 1950s. As a UN conference on preventing future poisoning outbreaks gets underway, we hear Mr. Ogata’s story.