D.O.E. to Find Out the Mercury Levels in Belize
How much do you know about mercury? It may not be something you think about often, but you may use a product or two everyday that contains mercury such as batteries or some types of light bulbs. But you don’t have to go that far because some fishes you eat also contain mercury. Exposure to high levels of mercury, however, can cause serious health complications. The problem became a global issue when in the 1950’s and 1960’s the water in a Japanese community called Minamata became contaminated with a form of mercury caused by factory dumping waste in the waterway. Of the people who ate fish from the area and lived near the site, nine hundred died and over two thousand developed serious health complications. Years later, Minamata Convention on Mercury was developed to protect human health and the environment. Andrea Polanco attended a workshop on Wednesday where mercury was the topic of discussion.
Andrea Polanco, Reporting
Mercury is a naturally occurring element that is found in air, water and soil. The chemical element is most known as a silvery-white metal but exists in various forms. Although exposure to mercury can cause serious health problems, it is found in everyday products. Because it is released into the environment, there is always a risk of exposure. Right now, Belize is undertaking an initiative called the Minamata Initial Assessment Inception Project to find out what the mercury levels are in country. That report will be submitted and depending on the findings, Belize could sign on to the Minamata Convention on Mercury. It is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the effects of mercury.
Marco Antonio Manzanilla
Marco Antonio Manzanilla, Project Coordinator, Minamata Initial Assessment Project, DOE
“At this point, inventories will be conducted at different institutions to find out how much mercury is in Belize. After that is done, a report will be written and that report will be sent to the UN environmental program and they will decide if we can be a part of the Minamata Convention. The Minamata Convention is to see how we could implement strategies of how to manage mercury in a country, for example. In Belize, first we need to find out the level of mercury in Belize and from there we need to develop strategies to manage mercury, for example, when it is as waste. It is something very important for Belize because Belize is a developing country. We don’t have anything in place or any strategy to deal with it as a waste. There are a lot of industrial processes that emit mercury.”
While mercury can threaten human life, it is still widely used across industries. The three main ways people are exposed to mercury are through the burning of coal and other fossil fuels; small scale gold mining where miners use mercury to separate the gold from rock and sediments; and through the consumption of contaminated fish and shell-fish. Manzanilla explains.
Marco Antonio Manzanilla
“A lot of people don’t know the effects of mercury and it is very hazardous to women and young children or fetuses, for example. It affects the child or an adult neurologically when it comes to motor skills. Small fishes would ingest the methyl mercury from planktons and then going up the food chain, you will see that the predators, for example, if you have small fish that eat planktons, then a bigger fish might eat ten of those little fish and that is what you call bioaccumulation and biomagnifications. So, by the time we eat that it has a negative effect on our neurological system. Mercury occurs naturally and we also cause mercury to be in the environment, for example, when we use cosmetics. When we combust fuel, as well. And also in gold mining they use mercury and that is where the imbalance of mercury occurs. We have the actual mining for fuel, for example, so the petrol industry. We have the dentists that use the amalgam, for example. At the medical institutions, we have thermometers and barometers that do use mercury for their equipment.”
Today, more than fifteen participants are attending a workshop to learn more about this assessment and how it factors in to the work that they do. Manzanilla, says the ground work started back in December and after this inception event, he will be doing an inventory.
Marco Antonio Manzanilla
“Then my job will be to go out to different industries, institutions, government and non-governmental, to find out what apparatus they have that use mercury; to find out what happen to those apparatus that use mercury when they are no longer useful. So, what is the disposal plan? So, that will be part of the actual inventory that I am conducting.”
Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.
