Environmental Health News: NGO Asks DENR to Identify Mercury Storage Facilities

Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HWH-SEA) yesterday asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to come up with storage facilities for mercury-based devices being phased out in Philippine hospitals.

HCWH-SEA program manager Faye Ferrer said the DENR has not identified such facilities, burdening hospitals that are forced to store the toxic chemicals themselves.

"We call on DENR-Environmental Management Bureau to have safe storage areas for mercury-based devices," Ferrer said in a press conference at the Department of Health (DOH).

The replacement of mercury-based hospital devices is mandated by DOH Administrative Order 2008-0021 issued last year in response to a global call to ban the hazardous chemical.

Under the AO, hospitals have two years to phase out such devices with alternative instruments and are prohibited from distributing mercury thermometers in their discharge and admission kits.

The AO states that mercury is harmful to the nervous system, digestive, respiratory, immune systems, kidney and lungs.

Exposure to the substance can cause tremors, impaired vision and hearing, insomnia, paralysis, emotional instability, developmental deficits during fetal development, attention deficit, and developmental delays during childhood.

DOH Undersecretary

David Lozada said the department was given P13.2 million in its 2009 budget to support DOH-run hospitals in buying alternative devices. Each hospital will receive P200,000.

Dr. Edwin Sanchez, chairman of DOH Committee on Mercury Phase Out, noted that mercury does not dissipate.

"We cannot just dispose of mercury. We have to keep it in safe storage until we find the technology to dispose of it."

Sanchez added that even in developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, there is no disposal system for mercury.

Aside from thermometers, medical devices that contain mercury are sphygmomanometers and blood pressure monitors.