Minamata Convention on Mercury (2013, with 2024 revisions)
Summary
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is the international treaty under the United Nations Environment Programme regulating anthropogenic mercury releases worldwide. The Convention was adopted October 10, 2013, entered into force August 16, 2017, and has been ratified by more than 140 countries. It addresses the supply, use, trade, emissions, and waste of mercury and mercury compounds across multiple sectors: artisanal and small-scale gold mining (the largest single anthropogenic mercury release source globally), coal combustion, mercury-added products (including phasing out fluorescent lamps, batteries, switches, cosmetics, and certain dental amalgams), industrial processes, and contaminated sites. The convention is named for Minamata, Japan, the site of the most consequential historical methylmercury poisoning event (industrial methylmercury discharge into Minamata Bay caused thousands of cases of developmental and adult neurological disease beginning in the 1950s).
The convention is the international policy framework underlying mercury-related dietary risk: by reducing global anthropogenic mercury emissions, it operates upstream of the methylmercury bioaccumulation in fish and seafood that drives the EFSA, JECFA, FDA/EPA, and ATSDR dietary mercury reference values.
Provenance notes
License public-redistribute. The 2024 edition reflects amendments adopted at the Conference of Parties; the original treaty text was deposited with the UN Secretary-General on October 10, 2013. UNEP permits reproduction in whole or in part for educational or non-profit purposes with acknowledgment of source.