From a phaseout to a total ban

Two months ago, I wrote about the campaign to phase out mercury-based healthcare materials like thermometers and sphygmomanometers (blood pressure taking devices) in hospitals and households. In that article entitled “Doing away with mercury”, I also talked about the Department of Health’s Administrative Order 21, issued in July 2008. The order mandated all hospitals to immediately discontinue the distribution of mercury thermometers to patients, stick to the prescribed timeline in phasing out mercury in their facilities and undertake a mercury minimization program. All health-care facilities should be mercury-free by the end of 2010.

Faye Ferrer, program officer for mercury for Healthcare Without Harm – Southeast Asia, told me that her group was cooperating with the health department and individual hospitals in the phase-out efforts. She added that the main obstacle to the elimination of mercury was the accessibility of mercury based thermometers and sphygmomanometers (they were still being sold in drug and medical supplies stores) and their low prices; the alternatives were costlier and more difficult to obtain.

These constraints nonetheless, Faye now says her group is calling for a total ban of mercury-containing devices instead of just complying with the phaseout, which was really just a compromise to begin with. (Her group’s original position was for the imposition of an outright ban. Some sectors, however, opposed this, saying this would disrupt trade relations with China. China is a main exporter of these mercury-containing devices.)

Why the change?

Healthcare Without Harm has been going around the country promoting its so-called Green Covenant, which seeks to make environment matters an election issue. In its recent trips to the Ilocos Region, the Cagayan Valley and the Calabarzon areas, it learned that many public hospitals, especially those run by local governments, were not complying with the administrative order. Worse, some hospitals did not know it even existed at all. Apparently Department of Health representatives in these areas had minimal clout.

Second, the 18-year-old victim of mercury poisoning in St. Andrews’ School in Parañaque finally filed a suit against the school and a teacher, four years after a spill happened on February 16, 2006. John Seth Cerillo was among 13 students confined at the Philippine General Hospital after they manifested symptoms of mercury poisoning. Their science teacher, Gloria Mercado, passed around a beaker containing mercury in class.

Now John Seth suffers from symptoms similar to Parkinsons’ disease, nerve damage and constant tremors and fevers. He still attends school but has difficulty keeping up with his load. The family spent the last four years appealing to the school to help with the medical expenses for the boy; alas, the school was now “ignoring” the family’s calls for help. They went to court seeking six million pesos in damages. But John Seth’s entire future, which is priceless, has been irreversibly compromised.

John Seth puts a face to all the other victims, or would-be victims, of mercury poisoning. Many cases go unreported. Worse, many people remain clueless that the harmless-looking silvery white element can do so much harm, specifically in the nervous system. For example, people do not know that their mercury-based thermometers contain enough of the element to contaminate a small lake. There are also standard procedures to follow should a spill occur, whether in the hospital or at home.

But now Ferrer is upbeat; she has just come from a meeting with Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral who, she says, “agreed” to her group’s four recommendations:

First, that the health department would engage in a more aggressive public campaign about the dangers of mercury.

Second, that the department would write letters to local government units telling them about the administrative order.

Third, that it would follow up on the status of John Seth and all the other victims of the St Andrews incident.

Finally, that the use of mercury based thermometers and sphygmomanometers would be banned the soonest time possible.

According to Ferrer, Cabral, who has just assumed her new Cabinet post last month, told her that her team would formalize the supposed adoption of these recommendations and get back to the group “immediately.” Ferrer hopes that such commitments would be translated into action, despite the fact that election fever is sweeping the country with barely three months to the polls.

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Earlier this month, we heard that the Food and Drugs Administration had banned the distribution of three brands of beauty products—whitening creams— from China. These products were found to contain mercury. It is not clear whether actual poisoning cases or a simple random test made the finding possible.

This is another aspect of Healthcare Without Harm’s advocacy against mercury-laden consumer products. Apparently, not all products contain the proper information even as they make grand promises that would lure consumers. Sometimes, too, all the information on the label are in Chinese.

The group emphasizes that the banning of mercury in hospital settings and even in consumer goods have more far reaching implications to ordinary people. This is why the matter is being raised now, as an election issue.

And indeed, more than the fleeting—though decidedly more exciting—issues of shifts in party affiliations, infighting among decision makers of a political party and rumors of candidacy withdrawals and partner swapping, the threats of mercury poisoning and its lasting effects will remain long after the dust of the election settles. –Adelle Chua, Manila Standard Today

adellechua@gmail.com