Mercury thermometers to be banned starting from 2021
13:52 | 09.11.2018 Category: Social
Chisinau, 9 November /MOLDPRES/- According to the provisions of the Law on ratification of the Minamata Convention, starting from 1 January 2021, the import and export of mercury-containing products will be prohibited in Moldova. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection made the statement in the context of a case in a kindergarten in the capital, where several mercury thermometers were broken.
Until the entry into force of the Minamata Convention, the authorities decided to reduce the use of mercury devices. The MSMPS also recommends early education institutions to use alcohol-based thermometers, but the mercury-based ones to be excluded from use.
Doctors report that mercury is most toxic non-radioactive element, in the body acts as a neurotoxin, destroying the nervous and cerebral tissue.
About 80% of inhaled mercury is absorbed through the respiratory system, and is then distributed through the circulatory system throughout the body.
On 7 November, six mercury thermometers were broken at a kindergarten in N. Costin street. There were no children in the room at that time. The room where the thermometers were broken was cleansed by the rescuers.
(Reporter A. Zara, editor A. Răileanu)
