HONG KONG – Legal provisions prohibiting the supply and sale of regulated mercury-added products will come into effect in Hong Kong on Dec 1 to protect public health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions of mercury and mercury compounds.

The Mercury Control Ordinance, which took effect on Dec 1, 2021 to fully implement the Minamata Convention on Mercury in the city, regulates the import, export, keeping and use of mercury, mercury mixtures and mercury compounds, as well as the import, export and manufacture of mercury-added products.

Starting from next month, no person shall supply, including selling or providing for free, regulated mercury-added products, the government said, adding that the provisions of prohibition will facilitate the industry's gradual transition to the use and supply of mercury-free alternatives, the government said on Friday.

However, the use of regulated mercury-added products does not constitute an offence. Such products include batteries, switches and relays, compact fluorescent lamps, linear fluorescent lamps, high-pressure mercury vapor lamps, cold cathode fluorescent lamps and external electrode fluorescent lamps for electronic display, cosmetics, biocides and topical antiseptics, and non-electronic measuring devices.

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“Currently, most regulated mercury-added products are no longer available on the market. There are ample mercury-free alternatives available, and there are no local manufacturers that require the use of mercury or mercury compounds in their manufacturing processes,” a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department said.

It is believed that this control will have a very low impact on the public and the industry, added the spokesman.

The EPD has already sent letters to inform stakeholders, including suppliers, sellers, and chambers of commerce, about the details of the prohibition on the supply of regulated mercury-added products. EPD officers also visited about 1,000 merchants that may still sell regulated mercury-added products from September to October.

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The government said the EPD will provide free collection and disposal services to merchants who still have stocks of regulated mercury-added products.