Due to the harm caused by mercury to the environment and human health, along with the recent decrease in demand for mercury-containing products, the EPA preannounced that starting on 1 January 2021, the import of mercury-containing switches and relays, high-pressure mercury-vapor lamps for common lighting, and non-electronic measuring instruments will be banned.

The global trend in mercury control is to gradually limit and ultimately ban mercury-containing products. The UN’s Minamata Convention on Mercury took effect on 16 August 2017, banning the manufacture, import and export of mercury-containing switches and relays, high-pressure mercury-vapor lamps for common lighting, and non-electronic measuring instruments such as barometers, hydrometers, pressure gauges, thermometers and sphygmomanometers by the end of 2020, as stipulated by Article 4 paragraph 1 and Attachment A.

The EPA announced the Restrictions on the Import and Sale of Mercury Thermometers in 2008. Based on the Regulations Concerning Toxic Chemical Substances Listed for Control and Relevant Operations and Management announced and revised by the Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau on 5 July 2019, mercury can no longer be used to manufacture switches, relays, high-pressure mercury-vapor lamps for common lighting, and non-electronic measuring instruments such as barometers, hydrometers, pressure gauges, thermometers, and sphygmomanometers, starting 1 January 2021. With the schedule for banning the manufacture of mercury-containing products already announced, further controls on imports are still required.

Due to the hazards mercury poses to the environment and human health, as well as the falling need for mercury-containing products owing to advances in electronic instruments and consumer electronics, the EPA preannounced the import ban of the aforementioned products so as to strengthen controls starting in 2021, in compliance with the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Excerpt from Environmental Policy Monthly, 23 (2)