World governments have taken their first significant steps towards a
legally binding treaty to control mercury pollution at a recent United
Nations Environmental Program meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin with babies and small children at the greatest risk from exposure because mercury interferes with their development. 

The meeting recommendations provide countries with a basis to head into the International Negotiating Committee (INC) meetings which begin in Stockholm, June 2010.
Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin (nerve poison) which travels the globe and contaminates the food chain. Its most toxic form, methyl mercury, it accumulates in large predatory fish, which humans are exposed to when they eat fish. Fish is a vital protein source for much of the world’s population, with many indigenous peoples including Pacific islanders and Arctic tribes being dependent on fish as their only ready source of protein.  
"Earlier this year, the U.S. Geological Survey released a study showing an increase in mercury emissions from human sources is affecting the fish population in the Pacific Ocean, said Dr Lloyd-Smith, CoChair of the International POPs Elimination Network. "Scientists have predicted a 50 percent increase in mercury levels in the Pacific Ocean by 2050, if mercury emission rates continue as projected."
The water sampled for this study released May 2009 shows that the mercury levels in 2006 were already approximately 30 percent higher than the same samples in the 1990’s.
Global contamination with mercury requires urgent coordinated action. Human contribution to mercury pollution includes coal burning power plants and waste incineration. In some regions, small scale itinerant gold miners also use mercury to mine the ore and in doing so poison themselves, their families and their environment. 
"Mercury is not only a serious threat to human health and the environment, it is also an issue of social and environmental justice. Yet nobody is immune from the impacts of exposure to mercury. Currently Australian coal fired power stations and industrial mining spread this persistent poison across the country and across the globe." 
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IPEN heavy metals working group report on views of the global mercury treaty

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