The governing council of the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) is targeting a ban or strict restriction on mercury usage in product design through international controls. With more than 140 countries this year reaching an accord, UNEP recently announced that the governments unanimously decided to launch negotiations on an international treaty on mercury, which finds use in several consumer and medical electronics, as well as lighting sources.

The concurrence, which China, India, and many other Asian countries back, comes after the Obama administration announced that it had reversed the United States’ stance on mercury and was now in favor of an international ban or strict restriction on the material. Until the recent change in administration, the United States had strongly supported voluntary initiatives instead of a treaty.

The EU (European Union) has called for its ban to start by 2011. The EU currently restricts mercury usage in electronics through the ROHS (restriction-of-hazardous-substances) environmental-compliance directive.

UNEP estimates that 6000 tons of mercury annually enter the environment and that every kilogram of mercury people remove from the environment triggers as much as $12,500 in social, environmental, and human-health benefits.