The Global Treaty on mercury might include the prohibition of the metal in medicine.

The Coalition for mercury-free drugs (eat, for its acronym in English) helped to start this aggregate through efforts of defence in the negotiations that the United Nations (UN) held in Chiba, Japan, in January 2011. The President of the eat, Rev. Lisa Sykes, mother of a child diagnosed with poisoning with mercury related to a vaccine, described the way in which before the representatives of the 150 participating countries: “… unnecessary injection of mercury in pregnant women and children, as part of a vaccine or another drug, is a continuous and often unrecognised crisis”.

The Thimerosal (49.6% of mercury by weight), that still is used as a preservative in vaccines and as a sterilizer agent processes, is an unnecessary component and sometimes not shown in many vaccines. Its use is associated with neurological disorders in the development, cancer, birth defects and miscarriages. Those who have been adversely affected with the use of the Thimerosal in vaccines are the unborn and newborn babies.

Speaking to diplomats who attended the meeting of the UN in Chiba, Dr. Mark r. Geier of the eat noted: “this Treaty is to be totally effective, must be made clear that unintended exposure of humans to mercury, especially of pregnant women and children””, it will not be tolerated.

The comments of Dr. Geier were particularly well received by diplomats from the countries in development. The representatives of the eat met with the regional working groups in closed session and talked about the possibility of using 2-fenoxyetanol in vaccines and other drugs, as an alternative to the much less toxic Thimerosal.

Dr. Geier commented about the inequity of providing vaccines with reduced levels of mercury-Rich Nations, poor countries are still vaccines that contain levels dangerously high mercury: “children around the world, regardless of his place of birth or their level of income, are mercury-free vaccines.” “The practice of providing vaccines with levels low in mercury and mercury to the developed countries, while emphasis is placed on developing nations receive containing mercury-free, is clearly unjust.”

At the end of the negotiations in Chiba from diplomats from developing countries requested the Secretariat to assess the safety of mercury in drugs.