European Parliament and Council negotiators reached informal agreement late in the night of Tuesday 6 to Wednesday 7 December on the proposal for a new European regulation which seeks to restrict the use of mercury, a heavy metal that is highly toxic for both the environment and human health. Mercury is found in plastics, dental amalgam, emissions from coal-fired power stations and also in water.
“There are still a few details to be ironed out”, a European source said on Wednesday. The informal inter-institutional agreement still requires approval by the member states’ permanent representatives to the EU who meet on Friday 9 December.
It strengthens import restrictions and makes additions to the already existing ban on exports of mercury compounds.
A diplomatic source acknowledged that it had been the ban on mercury in dental amalgam by 2022, as the European Parliament had called for, that had been the major sticking point for the negotiators (see EUROPE 11645). “That was one of the main points of discussion.” Nothing has filtered out on the content of the agreement on this point, however. “The negotiators found a middle-ground approach”, was all the source would say.
The Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER), which advises the Commission, recommended banning the use of mercury in dental amalgam for children and pregnant women (2014 opinion on environmental risks and indirect effects on health of mercury in dental amalgam).
Europe is the world’s largest user of dental amalgam and environmental and health NGOs, along with many dentists, have been calling for a ban on mercury, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) points out. “An ambitious regulation is needed to reduce the use of mercury in the EU and phase it out of dentistry. Over 66% of dental fillings in the EU are now made without mercury and it is now time that this becomes the norm”, states Elena Lymberidi-Settimo of the EEB in a press release.
The regulation under scrutiny was proposed by the Commission in February 2016 (to amend and replace Regulation 1102/2008 on banning exports of metallic mercury and certain mercury compounds and mixtures and the safe storage of metallic mercury). It was accompanied by a draft decision on ratification by the EU of the Minamata Convention which is designed to protect public health and the environment from mercury. Ratification by the EU and its member states would take to over 50 the number of parties that have completed ratification and would allow the convention to come into effect three months later, that is to say, in the course of 2017 (see EUROPE 11482). This is no mean matter as countries like China have already ratified the text. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)