mercury pollution News | Environmental XPRT

Mercury pollution watchdog to set up in Geneva

Geneva will play host to the body responsible for implementing a global convention to reduce mercury pollution. Some 150 countries voted in favour of the Swiss city at the first conference of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which was also staged in Geneva. ...

Oct. 1, 2017

By Mercu Removal Ltd

Mercury workshops in South Africa

In March Lumex Instruments company took part in several workshops in South Africa, which are devoted to the problems of mercury pollution, its sources and impact. Two events – Energy Efficiency & Emissions workshop and 12th annual Mercury Emissions from Coal workshop – were organized by IEA Clean Coal Centre. Our expert among more than 70 participants from around the world ...

Mar. 23, 2017

By Lumex Instruments Group

European Union welcomes the signing of the Minamata Convention on Mercury

Today Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, and Lithuanian Environment Minister Valentinas Mazuronis signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury on behalf of the European Union. The ceremony, in the Japanese town of Kumamoto, was attended by representatives of more than one hundred governments from around the globe. The Convention is the first new multilateral ...

Oct. 10, 2013

By European Commission, Environment DG

World governments support breakthrough agreement on mercury

Defying expectations, world environmental ministers have agreed to begin negotiating a treaty to control global mercury pollution. The decision represents the consensus of the more than 140 countries gathered here for the 25th UNEP Governing Council meeting. “This consensus is a huge breakthrough,” said Elena Lymberidi – Settimo of the European Environmental Bureau and the Zero Mercury Working ...

Feb. 20, 2009

By European Environmental Bureau

U.S. signs Minamata treaty to reduce global trade in mercury, source emissions

The U.S. on Nov. 6 signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury, paving the way for the nation to become a party to the international agreement to reduce airborne emissions from power plants and other sources of mercury. The U.S. was scheduled to sign the Minamata Convention on Oct. 10 at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, but U.S. participation in that meeting was ...

Nov. 12, 2013

By Bloomberg BNA

Vote brings US closer to reducing mercury pollution

Members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 29-14 to approve H.R. 2190 and move it out of committee. The bill would require chlor-alkali plants to end their use of mercury-based technology in chlorine and caustic soda production. Oceana, an international ocean conservation group that has been working for nearly five years to persuade nine companies to switch from ...

Oct. 23, 2009

By Oceana

`Chemical fingerprints` could reveal source of mercury pollution

Scientists have described a new method for tracking down the source of mercury pollution from burning coal. By analysing the chemistry of the pollution, it is possible to identify which region the coal was originally from. Mercury pollution in the atmosphere comes mainly from coal-fired power stations and chemical plants. Mercury is naturally present in coal and is emitted when it is burned as ...

Sep. 17, 2009

By European Commission, Environment DG

NRDC: Polluter Partnership Wrong to Reject Climate Action

The following is a statement from Peter Altman, Climate Campaign director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, on misguided complaints issued today by the Partnership for a Better Energy Future about proposed first-ever federal limits on carbon pollution from the nation’s existing power plants. “Big polluters are seeking to protect their profits over public health. The fact is ...

Jul. 22, 2014

By Natural Resources Defense Council

States, Enviros Sue EPA Over Cement Factory Emissions

ALBANY, New York (ENS) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today announced a multi-state legal challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, for adopting a rule that refuses to regulate mercury and other pollutants from existing portland cement plants. The states seek to have a federal court overturn the rule by finding that it violates the Clean Air Act. A petition, signed ...

Feb. 21, 2007

By Environment News Service (ENS)

U.S. EPA proposes to eliminate mercury pollution from dentist offices nationwide

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced a proposal to eliminate mercury pollution from dental offices nationwide. These new Clean Water Act standards would cut discharges of dental amalgam - a mixture of mercury and other metals that dentists use to fill cavities. Under this proposal, dentists must use devices to remove mercury and other toxic metals before they go down the ...

Sep. 25, 2014

By US EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

Better estimates of worldwide mercury pollution

Original story at MIT News Once mercury is emitted into the atmosphere from the smokestacks of power plants, the pollutant has a complicated trajectory; even after it settles onto land and sinks into oceans, mercury can be re-emitted back into the atmosphere repeatedly. This so-called “grasshopper effect” keeps the highly toxic substance circulating as “legacy emissions” ...

Aug. 11, 2015

By MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Global Agreement on Mercury Pollution In the Works

The soaring price of gold may be increasing mercury pollution locally and worldwide. The poisonous heavy metal is used to extract gold from ore in many artisanal mining operations which involve millions of workers and their families. Experts also worry that the increased burning of coal, which naturally contains mercury, is causing the toxic to be released into the air and spread around the ...

Nov. 14, 2007

By Environment News Service (ENS)

Statement by EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson on the ozone national ambient air quality standards

Since day one, under President Obama’s leadership, EPA has worked to ensure health protections for the American people, and has made tremendous progress to ensure that Clean Air Act standards protect all Americans by reducing our exposures to harmful air pollution like mercury, arsenic and carbon dioxide. This Administration has put in place some of the most important standards and ...

Sep. 2, 2011

By US EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

New Countries Ratify the Minamata Convention on Mercury as UNEP Calls for Early Entry into Force and Effective Implementation

The governments of Chad and Samoa announced their ratification of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, Thursday, at an event organized by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and hosted by the governments of Japan, Switzerland, the United States of America and Uruguay. The event aimed at providing important momentum to accelerate the entry into force and implementation of the Convention, which ...

Sep. 24, 2015

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Global Treaty on Mercury Pollution Gets Boost from United States

The United States has strengthened the international effort to bring down emissions and releases of a notorious heavy metal after simultaneously signing and ratifying the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The treaty, adopted on 10 October in the Japanese city of Kumamoto and named after the place where thousands of people were poisoned by mercury in the mid-20th century, has now been signed by 93 ...

Nov. 7, 2013

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Poisoning the Great Lakes: 25 Coal-fired Power Plants Responsible For Half the Region`s Mercury Pollution

Just ahead of a major U.S. Senate vote on the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to clean up mercury and other toxic air pollutants, a Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report shows that the 25 worst coal-fired power plants account for more than half of the dangerous mercury pollution emitted by the total of 144 electricity generation facilities in the Great Lakes region. The ...

Jun. 6, 2012

By Natural Resources Defense Council

Better detection of mercury contamination developed by researchers

Mercury contamination has a negative impact on both the environment and human health. Researchers have developed a simple visual technique that will make detecting mercury pollution much easier. Mercury poses an international threat, as it can be transported through the air and through the food chain, especially via fish. It is mainly used in thermometers, barometers, dental fillings and ...

Oct. 30, 2008

By European Commission, Environment DG

Senate introduces bill to eliminate mercury from chlorine production

Oceana applauds Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) for introducing the Mercury Pollution Reduction Act of 2009 (S. 1428) in the U.S. Senate . The bill, co-sponsored by Senators Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Russ Feingold (D-WI), would phase-out the use of mercury technology in domestic chlorine production within two years. Specifically, it would require four renegade chlorine ...

Jul. 10, 2009

By Oceana

Arctic Council States welcome Minamata Convention on Mercury

The Minamata Convention, a global agreement "to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds," will be opened for signature in Minamata, Japan from October 9-11. The Arctic Council States and Permanent Participant organizations welcome the new agreement, recognizing that the Council's scientific work has contributed greatly to ...

Oct. 14, 2013

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Lumex Instruments is traditionally taking part in 12th Mercury and Multi-Pollutant Emissions from Coal Workshop (MEC 12)

Lumex Instruments is traditionally taking part in 12th Mercury and multi-pollutant emissions from coal workshop (MEC 12) which will be held in Mpumalanga, South Africa from 28th of February to 3rd of March, 2017. As always, it is focused on mercury and combined pollutant control from coal combustion. The MEC 12 workshop will include issues such as coal chemistry, control technologies and ...

Feb. 21, 2017

By Lumex Instruments Group