Closing Remarks Asia regional Conference on Mercury-Free Health Care Juan Miguel Cuna Director, Environmental Management Bureau

Distinguished guests, my colleagues in government, regional participants, partners from the nongovernmental organization, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Throughout the day, we have learned about global initiatives and regional experiences in the phase-out of health care devices containing mercury. We are encouraged by your strong commitment to share and openly discuss actions , experiences and challenges that confront us firstly, in the seeking of alternatives to health care devices containing mercury, and secondly in finding the best available technology and best environmental practices for storage and final disposal of mercury. In THE Philippines, both the Department of Health and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources through the EMB have engaged in discussions towards the collection of these health care devices, setting out guidelines for proper handling and storage to ensure protection of people and the environment from the harmful effect of mercury. The DOH Administrative Order No. 21 issued in 2008 has sent a powerful message to hospitals and relevant organizations including the general public, on the need for actions to be taken to shift to mercury free health care devices and to store them properly while awaiting final actions on its disposal. The Philippine Energy Efficient Project is also being undertaken by the Department of Energy to evaluate the feasibility of operationalizing Extended Producers Responsibility for mercury containing lamps. This project will develop legal and policy instruments on mercury as well as to establish an infrastructure for the effective collection and the operations of the lamp waste management facility. Overall mercury emissions are distributed to all environmental media at least 45% to the air environment, 18% to the water environments, 19% to land and the rest goes to open dumps and landfill sites. Health care devices ranks as one of the three principal categories releasing mercury or 20% of mercury total releases in the Philippines. The EMB in an effort to strengthen the monitoring and tracking of mercury releases, is presently reviewing our legal mandate under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Republic Act 6969 to see where amendments, additional policies should be introduced to ensure the environmentally sound management of mercury and its wastes. Mercury Wastes is classified as hazardous wastes under Chapter 1 of DENR Administrative Order No. 36, the Procedural manual for Hazardous Wastes Management. Under this, all mercury wastes generators should register and ensure that handling, storage and disposal of hazardous wastes are properly done, and that only registered waste transporters and waste disposers shall be engaged by the generators. Safe mercury waste management should minimize exposure to health workers, wastes service providers and the general public and prevent environmental pollution. Moreover, the EMB will be working on a Guidance Document on the clean-up, transport and temporary storage of health care devices containing mercury waste. The issue on mercury is a global problem. The EMB has represented the Philippines in several Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee Meetings (INC) whose goal, is, to develop a comprehensive

and suitable approach to mercury management or a legally binding instrument on mercury. The provisions that will be introduced and included in the Agreement are as follows: (1) reduction of the supply and demand for mercury in products and processes, (2) enhancement of the capacity for environmentally sound storage of mercury,; (3) reduction of the international trade in mercury (4) reduction of atmospheric emissions of mercury, (5) address mercury containing waste and remediation of contaminated sites, (6) increase awareness raising an scientific information exchange, and (7) come up with a phased out plan of mercury. Finally, in closing let me thank Health Care Without Harm for their invaluable contributions, and for organizing this Conference. Throughout these years, they have remained vigilant and engaged and continue to partner with the government to ensure an environment that is safe from toxic chemicals like mercury. Ladies and Gentlemen, the concerns, ideas and possible solutions identified during this conference are of utmost importance to protect environments and public health. Sound chemical policies should be action oriented and employ approaches that are sufficiently protective to provide assurances that we are acting cautiously to protect our children future generations and the environment. Together we can achieve a new phase of globalization leading to sound environmental management, one built on regional cooperation. We each have a responsibility in moving our agenda forward. Thank you and Good afternoon to all of you. Let us leave here today with renewed commitment for our phase out of mercury.