Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment NGO
From January to September 2014 Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment NGO (AWHHE) implemented a project Towards phasing out mercury in products in Armenia. The project was supported by European Environmental Bureau (EEB) through Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG).
The Project goal was to promote quick ratification of the Minamata Convetion in Armenia.
Armenia signed the Minamata Convention on mercury in October 2013 and has already launched enabling activities in the frame of GEF project to assess the magnitude of the mercury problem in Armenia.
Mercury is used in a wide variety of household devices and products. These items release mercury into the environment when broken or improperly disposed. If spilled, mercury absorbs into many materials while slowly evaporating into the air over time, allowing for exposure. Knowing what products and items contain mercury and handling them properly, will limit the risk of mercury exposure. Common products often have a simple and environmentally friendly alternative.
Mercury is an extremely toxic material. Especially dangerous are organic mercury compounds. The penetration of mercury into the body often happens with inhalation of its odorless vapor. Exposure to mercury, even in small amounts can cause health problems and severe poisoning. Mercury is toxic to the nervous, digestive and immune systems, the lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes. Especially mercury and its compounds are dangerous to pregnant women because they represent a threat to the child's development. Acute mercury poisoning can lead to death. Chronic mercury poisoning occurs because of prolonged exposure to low doses of mercury vapor. There is no safe dose of mercury. That is why it is dangerous to leave the broken thermometer or fluorescent lamp unattended in the house: tiny droplets of mercury can split into tiny beads and roll into crevices and other hard to reach places where they evaporate and cause poisonings.
In the course of the AWHHE project it became evident that currently it is not possible to collect data on mercury containing products in the Armenian market due to lack of information or lack of access to information for civil society sector.
However, AWHHE estimations show that there are some problems, such as presence of mercury in cosmetics and children’s toys which was shown by AWHHE investigation and analysis.
Another problem that we would like to focus on is the increase in the volume of sales of mercury containing fluorescent lamps. In the view of absence of any regulation and corresponding structures to ensure safe disposal of these dangerous products, the problem is even more important.
In recent years, fluorescent or energy saving lamps have become increasingly popular. They are designed for installation in a standard incandescent socket. However, the main problem with these lamps is that they contain rather considerable amount of mercury (from 2 mg to 5 mg) which is not safe for health. The mercury containing lamps are imported to Armenia. According to the inquiries that we made visiting some shops, sales of energy-saving lamps in retail outlets has increased considerably. Our estimation is that up to 700,000 lamps enter Armenian market annually; it is estimated that annually up to 3,5 kilograms of mercury enter the Armenian market with the mercury containing lamps.
As a safe alternative to mercury containing fluorescent lamps the Armenian market offers light-emitting diode lamps which are currently more expensive. However, the current market shows a tendency to offer the ecologically friendly light-emitting diode lamps at more acceptable prices. In this context, AWHHE believes that to protect the health and the environment from the harmful impact of mercury it is more reasonable to encourage gradual shift towards light-emitting diode lamps instead of mercury containing fluorescent lamps.
October 09, 2014 at 18:12