Bangkok Press Conference Focuses on Mercury Pollution Issues in Thailand
IPEN and Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand (EARTH) held a press conference at the headquarters of the Thai Journalists’ Association to call attention to the mercury pollution issues in Thailand, particularly mercury emissions from coal power plants and other industrial sources such as petroleum and gas production and waste incineration. The testimonies by community leaders from Krabi and Tha Tum provided first-hand accounts on how mercury pollution is affecting the public health and the environment due to the operation of coal plants, the top mercury emitter as per the Thai government’s inventory. Last year, EARTH, in collaboration with IPEN and the BRI, sampled human hair and fish in Tha Thum, which detected elevated levels of mercury above the US reference limit for hair and Thai limit for fish, compelling government agencies to investigate and subsequently form a tri-party monitoring committee.
Read more about the press conference, and IPEN's activities during the sixth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the Mercury Treaty here.