DOH TO BAN MERCURY IMPORTATION
6-point agenda to a mercury-free Philippines presented


Manila  Following movements to ban mercury globally, the 
Philippine Department of Health on Friday said that it will 
ask for the banning on importation of mercury products in 
the country.
 
Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral in a meeting with 
environmental health group, Health Care Without Harm-
Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) identified other measures to 
ensure that the public will be safe from mercury.
 

#1 - No more mercury permits

According to Cabral, since Administrative Order (AO) 21 
was implemented in September 2008, the DoH is no longer 
giving permits to medical devices distributors to sell 
mercury thermometers.  The program will be escalated to 
include mercury sphygmomanometers.
 
Prior to AO 21, all hospitals have a one-is-to-one policy on 
mercurial thermometers.  This means that every patient 
admitted or discharged in a hospital is entitled to one 
mercurial thermometer.  In 2007, one 300 bed hospital 
distributed 10,000 mercurial thermometers in just a year.  

With the 98,463 hospital beds in the country, the health 
care sector alone gave out more than 3 million 
thermometers in just one year, said Faye Ferrer, HCWH-
SEA Program Officer for Mercury in Health Care.  This 
doesnt include yet purchases made by individuals, 
schools, laboratories small clinics.


# 2  AO 21 to reach local health units

The DoH likewise said that they will promote and 
disseminate AO 21 to the local government units (LGUs) 
who are managing the barangay health units, rural health 
units, city heath and municipal, district and provincial 
hospitals.
 
In the regional conferences organized by HCWH-SEA and 
DoH Center for Health Development (CHD), majority of 
LGU-run hospitals and health centers said that they are 
unaware of AO 21.  
 
In the conference for CALABARZON region, several 
health units raised the issue of involving the Department of 
Interior and Local Government (DILG) in the implementation 
of AO 21 citing that they are directly under the Department 
and that funding must also be supported by the LGUs.


# 3  Mercury-free budget 

To further speed-up AO 21 implementation, Cabral said 
that they will look into the 2009 General Appropriations 
Act (GAA) 13.2 M allocation for 66 government-run 
hospitals to purchase non-mercurial devices and have it 
released at the soonest possible time.
 
In 2008, HCWH-SEA together with Social Watchs 
Alternative Budget Initiative for health lobbied for additional 
environmental health allocations in the DoH budget.  This 
however remains unreleased.
 

# 4 - Beyond health care

Cabral likewise expressed that DoH will set-up a program 
to follow-up on the state of the more than 20 student 
victims of mercury poisoning in St. Andrews School in 
Paranaque in 2006.  
 
Earlier, one of the victims who is now suffering advanced 
stage of Parkinsonism and nerve damage filed a 6M civil 
case against the school.  While the other victims have 
stopped chelation therapy to remove mercury from their 
system, it is unclear whether they have been cleared by 
the hospital. 


# 5  More alternatives

Cabral also pronounced that the DoH will continue the 
program to replace mercury devices in hospitals.  
 
To further strengthen this, Cabral signed the Green Health 
Covenant which calls for the health sector and other 
individuals to call on their candidates to support mercury 
phase-out in the country and other green health care 
agenda such as proper heath care waste management 
leading to zero waste, chemical safety in health care and 
a health care responsive to climate change.
 
The Green Health Covenant now has more than 900 
signatures from health care facilities in Regions 1, 2, 4A 
and online signatories.
 

# 6  Ban mercury importation

The next logical step to mercury phase-out: ban mercury.
 
DoH said they will ask for the banning of importation of 
mercury products.  This will prevent entry of mercury 
devices in the Philippine market.
 
Now that the DoH has taken a firmer stand to ban 
mercury, we are enjoining the health care sector, other 
government and non-government agencies and 
organizations and the general public to support the 
banning of mercury importation in the country, Ferrer 
added.


HCWH is an international coalition of more than 470 
organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the 
health care sector worldwide, without compromising 
patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable 
and no longer a source of harm to public health and the 
environment. For more information on HCWH-SEA, see 
www.noharm.org.ph.