Mercury ", approved the aforementioned Regulation (EC) No 1102/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 on the prohibition of the export of metallic mercury and certain mercury compounds and mixtures and on the safe storage of metallic mercury.
The export ban results in considerable surpluses of mercury in the EU, which must be prevented from returning to the market and must be managed and stored in a safe and environmentally sound manner.
In this sense, an international benchmark for the safe storage of mercury and other related activities is, in Spain, the National Technological Centre for Mercury Decontamination (CTNDM), created to adapt to this new scenario and located precisely in Almadén, which means reorienting the activities of the region towards environmental technological development in the search for solutions to problems such as the safe storage of metallic mercury and its waste.
In order to strengthen the presence of the CTNDM in this linkedin data international arena, in September 2011 Spain joined the Global Mercury Partnership within the UNEP framework and at the meeting of this association held in October 2011, Spain and Uruguay were elected co-leaders of the working group of this association that addresses the issues of mercury supply and storage.
At the CTNDM , together with other Spanish public institutions, the University of Castilla la Mancha and the Higher Council for Scientific Research , techniques have been developed with great success for the safe temporary storage of metallic mercury and for the stabilization of mercury that allows for a permanent environmentally sound and safe storage. They are currently international benchmarks.
In addition, Spain has actively participated in the parallel activities developed during the second and third meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, presenting documents and making presentations related to the work of the National Technological Centre for Mercury Decontamination. At both meetings, the work presented was the subject of great interest by the various governmental, sectoral and civil delegations that attended the Committee meeting, as they presented practical and affordable solutions to a real problem that practically all countries will have to face.
Finally, perhaps the weakest point of the treaty is the controls on mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants and industry, as well as the use of mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mines, which are currently the main sources of mercury in the environment.
In any case, this agreement includes considerable progress, close monitoring of the entire life cycle of mercury (from the mine to its storage), and represents the culmination of four years of negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme, of more than 140 countries, which in itself is quite an achievement.
Let us hope that all these efforts will actually translate into improving our environment and reducing the associated risks to human health so that we will never have to experience events like the one that occurred in Minamata again.