Minister seeks plan to phase out mercury products

Tasks producers on new lead paints’ standard
Determined to safeguard the health of the populace, the Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril has expressed the need for a national policy and implementation plan to phase down or out mercury added products.

Represented by the Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Environment (FMENV), Mr. Olubunmi Olusanya at a national dissemination workshop of mercury products project in Nigeria organised in Lagos by Sustainable Research And Action for Environmental Development (SRADev), he applauded the organisation for its role in ensuring that Nigeria ratify the Minamata convention on mercury.

Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. It was agreed at the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on mercury in Geneva, Switzerland in 2013.

Nigeria became the 85th ratification country after Lebanon and 24th in Africa after President Mohammadu Buhari signed the treaty in August 29, 2017 and the country is in the process of formalizing the ratification with the United Nation’s headquarters and it is expected to be binding on the country on April 2018.

According to him, development and amendment of legislations and regulations, import, trade, use and disposal of mercury added products in accordance with article four of the convention would also be necessary.

Earlier in his remarks, the Executive Director, SRADev Nigeria, Mr. Leslie Adogame, said the workshop was designed as a feed back mechanism on what has been done as Nigeria finally key into the global Minamata convention in order to develop strategy for a phase out in 2020.

In his remarks technical adviser to SRADev and a professor of Chemistry in the University of Lagos, Babajide Alo emphasized that mercury is recognized as a global pollutant of concern, which should be reduced or eradicated in products by 2020.

In a related development, the Minister has tasked paint manufacturers to adhere strictly to 90PPM lead standard set up by the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON).

Speaking at a National Stakeholders’ Dissemination Workshop on Lead Paint Elimination Campaign organised by SRADev, he posited that the economic and social costs associated with childhood lead exposure are very high, while costs associated with eliminating the use of added lead compounds in decorative and other paints are low.

Presenting a paper entitled; ”Lead Paint Elimination As A Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) Global Issue”, the minister stated that Manufacturers that presently produce lead decorative paints should reformulate their products and produce at a similar price, non-lead paints with similar colors and performance characteristics.

Represented by Olusanya, he explained that SAICM’s overall objective is the achievement of the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle so that by the year 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on the environment and human health.

“According to him, the Global Alliance set out the year 2020 as a date for every country of the world to adopt a legally binding limit of lead in paints stressing that luckily for Nigeria, the Standard Organization of Nigeria in consultation with other stakeholders have agreed on the limit of 90PPM of lead in paint as a general rule. However, he explained that there is the need to communicate the rule to the public and the paint manufacturers.

Adogame observed that Nigeria has to key into the campaign on the issue of lead in paint, give a human face to its economic implications and map out way forward for enabling environment towards a complete elimination.