Mercury - ISLANDS

Good news for mercury action in the Caribbean!

On 18 August 2023, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines deposited its instrument of ratification successfully, becoming the 145th Party to the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

In the Caribbean, mercury has been found in some manufactured and imported products as well as industrial processes. The biggest source of mercury releases globally is due to the use of mercury in most artisanal and small-scale gold mining processes. In the Caribbean region, this occurs in countries like Guyana and Suriname.

ISLANDS works in the Caribbean to prevent and manage mercury pollution, in compliance with the Minamata Convention.

The USA Biden administration restored a legal foundation for regulating and governing mercury, which could pave the way for even stricter controls on mercury emissions from power plants. The restored governance includes again a method of calculating emissions that will allow consideration of collateral benefits. This is focused on the public health benefits of limiting mercury such as prevention of disease and premature deaths, using science-based evidence for the health and well-being of all people.
While this is a story from the US, perhaps an opportunity for sharing information on calculating emissions, and regardless it signals a shift that can be important in international convenings for global governance on mercury from multiple sources to support ISLANDS countries and mercury-related initiatives.

Interesting article published on UNEP’s website today about an initiative involving the governments of Gabon, Jamaica and Sri Lanka to eliminate mercury from skin lightening products.

Despite the known dangers, mercury remains present in many skin-lightening products that are easily available in markets around the world. It works by inhibiting the body’s production or melanin thus making the skin appear lighter, however it can cause rashes and scarring, as well as serious nervous, digestive and immune system damage, anxiety and depression.

The new ‘Eliminating mercury skin lightening products’ project will seek to reduce the risks of exposure and raise awareness of the health risks and develop model regulations on reducing circulation and halting mercury production.

ISLANDS is also working to raise awareness and reduce the presence of mercury in 33 SIDS and presented its mercury initiatives and promoted this mercury community of practice on the Green Forum at the inaugural meeting of the project at WHO headquarters yesterday.

Sharing a new study which reveals a promising new way of identifying toxic mercury in fish.

For decades, fish ear stones, known as otoliths, were used to gain insights into fish growth, migration, diet, and the timing of their exposure to certain pollutants and mercury uptake in fish has been analyzed by measuring how much of it accumulates in whole bodies of fish, or often just in fillets — that is, muscle tissues.

This new study reveals a new measurement method - individual fish’s lifetime exposure to mercury by measuring it in the fish’s eyes. Eye lenses are made of pure protein, are high in sulfur content, and thus readily take up mercury either directly from water or from the fish’s diet. This means that now combining these methods together, scientists can find out how life history events, such as migration and diet shifts, or temporal events, such as low dissolved oxygen levels in water at certain times of the year, may influence a fish’s mercury levels.

Sharing a link to the study -> https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00755
And to an article about main findings of the study: https://theconversation.com/the-lenses-of-fishes-eyes-record-their-life…

Hello everyone, I am Jovita Tamosaityte, based in my home country, Lithuania, which is all snowy at the moment. I am lucky to have a chance to work in many aspects of the sustainability field for more than a decade with the focus on different regions and countries. I have been coordinating knowledge for ISLANDS since the beginning of the project and am pleased to see the collaboration and valuable experience sharing between SIDS. Thank you everyone for joining the webinar and looking forward to future collaborations!

I am sharing the link to the research on Mercury and Arsenic levels in skin lightening products in the Caribbean region. The co-author of the study, Dr. Terry, was among our speakers in the webinar and shared very interesting insights about skin bleaching creams commonly used in Trinidad and Tobago.

Hi everyone! I am Melanie Ashton - the Coordinator of ISLANDS. I am Australian by birth, British (after a really long time in London), and am now living with my family in the Loire Valley in France. I've spent many years working in the Pacific region, and the last five I have also been involved with chemicals and waste issues in the Caribbean. I am really pleased that we have now launched this group, and I'm very much looking forward to future discussions around mercury in SIDS. A huge thank you to our webinar speakers and panelists, and of course to Kenneth Davis to moderating our session so ably. Looking forward to getting to know you all, and to learning from you!