Experts and activists urged the government to ratify the Minamata Convention immediately to phase out mercury added products from Bangladesh citing its adverse impact on lives and environment.
They made the demand at a stakeholder consultation workshop organised by Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO) in Dhaka on Monday.
The workshop highlighted the current situation of mercury-added products in the country, along with the viability of phasing out the products and the importance of ratifying Minamata Convention.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is the most recent global agreement on environment and health, adopted in 2013. It is named after the bay in Japan where, in the mid-20th century, mercury-tainted industrial wastewater poisoned thousands of people, leading to severe health damage that became known as the “Minamata disease”.
Expressing solidarity with the demand, Keya Khan, Additional Secretary at the environment ministry said that “the government is taking necessary steps to phase out mercury added products from Bangladesh.”
Stressing the need for ratification of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, the majority of the speakers said, the workshop may serve as an important initial step in phasing out the use of mercury-added products in Bangladesh.
This workshop sets out the measures to be taken at a national level to move towards ratification and implementation of the Convention. The presence of implementing agencies at the workshops assists in informing the agencies of planned activities at the national level.
Syed Marghub Murshed, Chairperson of ESDO and Former Secretary of Bangladesh chaired the session while Prof Abu Jafar Mahmood, former Chairman, Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka; Prof. Abul Hashem, former Chairman, Department of Chemistry, Jahangirnagar University spoke among others.
S M Abu Syed, Assistant Director, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), Tanvir Ahmed, Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, BUET, Md. Saidur Rahman Khan, Health Service Division, were present at the workshop.
Siddika Sultana, Executive Director of ESDO, expressed her concern saying that “according to WHO, there is no safe level of mercury in the human body. We urge the government to phase out mercury toxicity in products.”
