European Hg exports may further increase, since North Sea countries have agreed to shut mercury cell chloralkali facilities in their nations by 2010. In their joint agreement to protect the North Sea, the signatory nations make no mention of purchasing and retiring the mercury from these facilities, hence it is likely that this privately-owned mercury will be sold to commodity brokers and exported to other nations. Alternative non-mercury technologies are available and feasible for nearly all possible uses. Exported mercury is distributed worldwide, yet partly comes back to the United States via the atmosphere, imported products, and imported commercially available fish. Exporting mercury ultimately exposes the American public to potential neurological risks.
Sales are, in effect, a subsidy to encourage use.
Thinking globally, acting locally suggests that U.S. government support of global mercury use and pollution should end. The U.S. government could set an example for other nations by exiting the business of providing a persistent, bioaccumulative toxic substance. Sweden appears to have banned recycling of mercury on environmental grounds. This is a decision equivalent to ending Federal sales of mercury. When harm is shifted from rich nations to less rich, as with U.S. exports of unwanted Hg, it exemplifies environmental injustice.