Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 3: The politics of wasteMercury is still mined on a large scale in China and by artisanal miners elsewhereon a small scale. It can also be a by-product of mining and refining zinc, gold andsilver and from refining of natural gas. It is also recovered from old mine-tailingsand recycled from mercury containing products and stockpiles, particularly in thechlor-alkali industry.Activists, including groundWork, are pushing for a global ban in the use ofmercury.Health care products contribute less than 1% to worldwide mercury demand butpose direct health risks to health workers and to people whose teeth have been filledwith dental mercury amalgams.The global movement for mercury-free health care reports advances in the EuropeanUnion and the United States in the phasing out and/or banning of mercury-basedmedical products. There are also advances in Argentina, Brazil and the Philippines.In South Africa the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health has issued a directivephasing out all mercury products in public health facilities. Ironically, theseinitiatives have brought down the costs of such products. In China, by 2004 therewere eight factories producing 150 million mercury-based thermometers, a 20%increase from 2000, using nearly 200 metric tonnes of mercury.Additional sources: Health Care Without Harm;and http://www.zeromercury.org/fact_sheet/index.htmlconference that an Italian corporation was dumping toxic waste in war torn Somaliademonstrated its pertinence and urgency. Delegates adopted environmental justice asthe core idea capable of linking disparate struggles – struggles for land, housing andservices, and struggles against pollution, dispossession and exclusion – to a commonmovement. They also mandated the formation of the Environmental Justice NetworkingForum (EJNF) to give shape to the movement. EJNF grew rapidly to represent over600 organisations representing workers, local community groups, religious bodies andwomen’s groups as well as NGOs active in a range of sectors. It took up the Thorcampaign amongst others and led civil society participation in the debates that thenseemed to promise a wholesale transformation of policy.- 40 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation