14.6.2  Minamata Convention on Mercury

This convention’s name comes from the Japanese town that you read about in Study Session 8 where mercury poisoned many of the local population. The convention deals with mercury use and handling with the purpose of reducing and preventing its release and bioaccumulation in the environment including water bodies that might be used for drinking. The ultimate goal is to phase out the release of mercury into the environment. This is a new convention that was adopted in October 2013 and is still open for signing by countries. Ethiopia is a signatory to this convention.