![\"Mercury1\"](\"\/pardeeschool\/files\/2017\/10\/Mercury1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHenrik Selin<\/a>, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was recently interviewed for an article on the\u00a0first meeting\u00a0of the parties of an international treaty to curb mercury pollution -\u2013 the Minamata Convention.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Selin was quoted in an October 17, 2017 article in\u00a0Bloomberg<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>entitled “Learning From the Fight Against Lead<\/a>.”<\/span><\/p>\n From the text of the article:<\/p>\n This month\u00a0marked the\u00a0<\/span>first meeting<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>of the parties of an international treaty to curb mercury pollution -\u2013 the Minamata Convention. The treaty was negotiated so it wouldn\u2019t change U.S. policy, said Boston University environmental policy professor Henrik Selin, but it will likely force China to cut back on emissions from coal-fired power plants, which can send pollution as far as the California coast. The treaty will also restrict the more localized threat that comes from the use of mercury in gold mining in developing countries.<\/p>\n Today in the U.S., mercury emissions are regulated under a hodgepodge of regulations, since much of it is emitted as air pollution but ends up as a water pollutant and food hazard. The Obama administration issued more\u00a0<\/span>coherent standard<\/a>, which would require coal-burning power plants to install scrubbers, but the coal industry is continuing to fight it in court, said Selin.<\/p>\n Historians such as Markowitz say the lessons of the past point to the need to employ the precautionary principle — requiring some proof of safety before substances are released into the environment.\u00a0<\/span>Critics<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>say that would paralyze innovation by making it nearly impossible to introduce any new drugs or other products. But Selin says employing a moderate precautionary principle would simply move the burden of proof, making it easier to regulate or ban potentially dangerous substances.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Henrik Selin<\/a>\u00a0conducts research and teaches classes on global and regional politics and policy making on environment and sustainable development. His most recent book is\u00a0<\/span>EU and Environmental Governance,<\/a>\u00a0by Routledge Press, and is also the author of\u00a0<\/span>Global Governance of Hazardous Chemicals: Challenges of Multilevel Management<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by MIT Press.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prof. Henrik Selin discusses the first meeting of the parties of an international treaty to curb mercury pollution -\u2013 the Minamata Convention. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11588,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8410],"tags":[9860,8857,8401,8859,10406,10410],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47689,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30451\/revisions\/47689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}