Japan via Singapore said bringing misery to rural Indonesia with mercury exports

Nao Hidaka Asahi Shimbun 8 Oct 13;

MINAMATA, Kumamoto Prefecture--In this city that is synonymous with the nation's worst case of industrial pollution, a symposium heard that Japan is causing untold misery with its exports of mercury.

The head of an Indonesian environmental NGO called Oct. 6 on Japan to halt its exports of mercury, saying that portions of shipments to Singapore, in particular, were often smuggled to Indonesia for use in small-scale gold mining operations there.

Yuyun Ismawati, 49, head of Balifokus, noted that mercury contamination in Indonesia is becoming a cause for concern.

According to Ismawati, Japan exported between 100 tons and 150 tons of mercury, mainly to Singapore and Hong Kong, over the past five years. However, she said there is, in fact, little demand for the liquid metal in those destinations.

Ismawati said Singapore is a known intermediary port for smuggling to Indonesia.

In 2010, about 280 tons of mercury were exported from Singapore to Indonesia. However, official Indonesian records show that only 2 tons of mercury were imported from Singapore to Indonesia that year.

Ismawati quoted smugglers as saying that they traded mercury through the black market.

“Mercury is illegally imported to Indonesia from developed countries, such as Japan, through a third country and is used there,” she said.

Small-scale gold miners are active in Asia as well as Africa.

Mercury is used during the refining process. The toxic fumes that result pose a serious health risk to workers. The use of mercury also contaminates the soil and water supply. One of the problems with mercury is that it does not break down in the environment.

According to the global NGO network IPEN and other sources, hair samples of residents in an Indonesian community had three times the mercury concentration as the U.S. environmental standard.

The symposium preceded the Oct. 9 opening of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the “Minamata Convention on Mercury.” The conference, which aims to regulate the use of mercury and exports of the substance, is expected to adopt the convention on Oct. 10. However, the use of mercury in small-scale gold mining operations is not prohibited in the convention.

Minamata disease, caused by mercury poisoning, was discovered in the city of the same name in the 1950s. Thousands of people were affected.

The neurological disease was caused by industrial waste from a Chisso Corp. chemical factory, which accumulated in shellfish and fish caught in Minamata Bay.