European Parliament backs mercury ban

Archiv – The European Parliament has voted massively in favour of a non-binding resolution supporting the EU Commission’s strategy for tackling pollution from mercury.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) called for an export ban to be put in place as soon as 2010, one year earlier than initially proposed within the strategy. They also supported measures to enforce safer mercury storage by the chlorine-alkali industry and to apply the ’polluter pays’ principle in cases of pollution from the toxic heavy metal.The European Parliament has voted massively in favour of a non-binding resolution supporting the EU Commission’s strategy for tackling pollution from mercury.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) called for an export ban to be put in place as soon as 2010, one year earlier than initially proposed within the strategy. They also supported measures to enforce safer mercury storage by the chlorine-alkali industry and to apply the ’polluter pays’ principle in cases of pollution from the toxic heavy metal. MEPs went further than the Commission in saying bans should be applied to ’all measuring and control equipment for both consumer and professional uses’, including in healthcare facilities where exemptions are generally accepted.
Although non-binding, the Parliament’s resolution is an indication that the EU’s General Assembly could agree to other strategy proposals in areas where its support is required in order to pass legislation. These include proposals to: ban mercury in home thermometers; and amend a directive on the marketing and use of dangerous substances that will set the terms of a possible ban on mercury.
In a vote taken in June last year, EU environment ministers expressed support for a phase-out of mercury exports, to apply from 2011.