TOKYO: Delegates from some 140 countries and territories on Thursday signed a United Nationstreaty to control mercury near the site ofJapan’s worst industrial poisoning, after Tokyo pledged $2 billion to help poorer nations combat pollution.
The delegates gathered in Minamata city to sign the world’s first legally binding treaty on the highly toxic metal.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is named after the Japanese city where tens of thousands of people were poisoned — around 2,000 of whom have since died — by eating fish and shellfish taken from waters polluted by discharge from a local factory.
The treaty will take effect once ratified by 50 countries — something organizer the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) expects will take three to four years.
AFP | Oct 10, 2013, 08.32 PM