by Ricky Jimenez
Mercury is asoge in local parlance. It is something you find in old clinics or laboratory thermometers, chemical reagents, including fluorescent lamps, among others.
In 1991, the World Health Organization (WHO) already warned “there are no safe levels for mercury exposures” This is so because mercury is confirmed to be one of the most powerful poisons to hurt the developing brain and the nervous system of school-age children. Its more feared effect is that it stunts the IQ development, memory, language and motor skills. It also finds its way to vital organs like the kidneys, lungs and thyroid.
It is interesting to know that in Davao city as early as the 1980s, a young scholarly academician, Rosita Fundador, in line with her doctoral thesis on the levels of coastal pollution along the Davao Gulf, had already determined that our coastal waters were teeming with Ecoli bacteria (due to the concentration of settlements without proper septic systems, near the waterways), mercury and other forms of contamination. Mercury contamination may be associated with mine tailings which found their way to the Gulf waters by way of gravity and tidal action.
Let us flash back to the 1950s in Minamata, a coastal area of Japan. Documented studies showed Japanese people developing shaky hands and uncoordinated body movements. These were classic mercury poisoning symptoms. The source of mercury was the seafood eaten by the victims, a phenomenon to be later called “Minamata Disease”. First to suffer is the human nervous system.
There is an actual threat to human health posed by mercury exposure as what took place in Paranaque, Metro Manila in 2006. A mercury spill occurred inside a classroom of the St. Andrews national high school As a result, the school was closed for three months to give way to expensive decontamination measures. There were 93 students exposed to mercury, of whom 10 were monitored closely for mercury toxicity. Of the 10, one boy succumbed to mercury vapors, causing him to develop permanent Parkinson’s Disease (uncontrolled trembling of the arms, and head) and nerve damage.
As a column catering to consumers, ECO SMART would like to thank our friends from the Kinaiyahan Foundation Inc. (KFI) for the information materials which we used in this edition. We are comforted by the thought that we can work out solutions to the mercury issue starting with public information and education.
Everyone is agreed that schools are the second home of our young children. It is only proper that schools are kept safe and free from mercury. Perhaps, it would be nice to show our readers where to get useful reading or video/film materials which could be shared with the student body and the parents during convocations. Paging KFI!
The Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Education (DepEd) have issued administrative orders to govern their respective departments, with respect to mercury-containing devices or instruments found in their respective jurisdictions. The main point is the phasing out of such deadly poisons from health care facilities and school campuses, respectively.
There is one thing that we consumers are confronted with, in respect to mercury poisoning. This is the proper disposal of busted fluorescent lamps, whether the long tube or compressed types. Both of them contain mercury, an element for causing illumination, even after the end of life of the lighting fixture. Proper disposal has to be observed. Environmentalists from the EcoWaste Coalition have reading materials suggesting that busted lamps be wrapped in old newspaper, and held in place by adhesive tape. They are to be turned over to the garbage collector with the marking “special waste” on the wrapper.
We all know that gold extraction uses mercury. At risk are the ballmill operation workers who are in physical contact with the poisonous element. Also in danger are people, animals and food plants downstream where mine tails are carried away by force of gravity. In time, the pollutants reach the Davao Gulf, a fact already established by the Fundador coastal pollution study of the 1980s.
The mercury issue is real and scary. We have been forewarned many years back. It’s time we took notice of the dangers it poses to human health and the environment.
(email me at rjrjrajimenez@gmail.com)
