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QUESTION:
Advice on campaigning for lead petrol ban in Mongolia, 30 Jul 2005, Ulaanbaatar Municipality Mongolia Dear Sir or Madam, My name is Mrs. Ts.Erdenechuluun and I am from Mongolia. I work as Director of the NGO "Millennium Progress", Mongolia. We are interested in air pollution issue, which is one of the biggest problems of the country, particularly in the capital city Ulaanbaatar. We would like to cooperate with your organization and hope to get valueable help and advice. I hope to hear from you soon. With regards, Tsevegrash Erdenechuluun Director, Millennium Progress NGO Room # 209 Huvisgaliin Museum Ulaanbaatar Mongolia |
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ANSWER: 31 Jul 2005 Dear Tsevegrash, It is wonderful that you have sent me an email. I can give you the following advice about how to campaign for a ban on leaded petrol in Mongolia and this will be the first essential step in reducing air pollution from motor vehicles in Mongolia. Can you please tell me if you know of any other major sources of lead pollution? For instance, are there any lead smelters or mines or lead acid battery manufacturers or recyclers? If you can write back to me with more details I will be able to help with the lead-related air quality issues but I would probably have to refer you to someone else if the major air quality issues are not from petrol vehicles or lead industry. If you know of any research on lead in blood in people in Mongolia then that is always a good starting point but it is not essential. Just knowing that there is lead in the petrol means that the number one priority for reducing air pollution from vehicles is to take the lead out of the petrol so that vehicles with catalytic converters can be used, thus reducing nearly all of the different types of vehicle air pollution. The first problem about which the World Health Organisation has written a guide to assess the burden of disease is the problem of lead poisoning. Scientists and policy makers can use the guide to estimate the costs to Mongolia or to Ulaanbaatar of lead poisoning. Please see "Lead: Assessing the environmental burden of disease" at www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/publications/9241546107/en/index.html - the guide also points out that it is important to know the most common sources of lead in your country. Chances are however, that banning leaded petrol is the most important first step in reducing lead poisoning and environmental lead contamination in Mongolia but especially in Ulaanbaatar. You can find a map showing which countries in the Asia Pacific region are still selling leaded petrol at www.unep.org/pcfv/Documents/MapAPLead-20Dec-sm.jpg - none of the countries to the south of Mongolia is selling leaded petrol for road vehicles any longer [and although Australia is still listed as selling leaded petrol on the map, leaded petrol is less than 1% of the petrol now sold in Australia]. At the Third Global Meeting of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Partnership for Cleaner Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV) that I attended in New Delhi in December last year, the following discussion point was noted in the Proceedings: "The use of joint Partnership delegations with high-level participants to visit countries as a means of convincing them to phase-out lead was discussed, especially as in many countries, the issue of the phase-out seems to be more political than technical/economic." [see www.unep.org/pcfv/Documents/3GPM-Summary-Final.pdf] What this means is that as a representative of a non-government organisation in your country, the best information you can give to your Environment Minister is that the PCFV is able to provide a delegation to visit your country to help overcome any problems that the Minister states as the reason for the delay in banning leaded petrol. The Proceedings of the meeting also noted: "Lead: the Clearing-House should collect data in order to make a global inventory of countries still using lead; a deadline should be set (or research should be done to find/publicise deadlines already set) for global lead phase-out; there should be a Q&A section on the PCFV website for lead issues." To this end, you will find a useful Asia Pacific inventory at www.unep.org/pcfv/Documents/LeadMatrix-Asia-Pacific.pdf which you should point out to the Minister, lists no planned phase-out date for Mongolia, despite 19 other countries in the region having already achieved the ban. You should ask the Minister when he/she is going to achieve the phase-out so that Mongolian children wi ll have the same chance as other children at growing up without losing IQ points because of lead in the petrol. You will also find a basic Question and Answer section at www.unep.org/PCFV/Documents/Pub-AECLP-Myths.pdf as well as a booklet called "Getting the lead out: Downstream strategies and resources for phasing out leaded gasoline" at www.unep.org/PCFV/Documents/Pub-IPIECA-LeadOut.pdf - and you can usefully refer the Minister to all of these web-publications. You can also take some of the arguments from the PCFV website and put them straight into your letter to the Minister, for example: "Catalytic converters, which control other significant vehicle pollutants such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, are now installed in over 85% of new gasoline-fueled cars manufactured around the world, but cannot be used with leaded gasoline, since lead renders the catalyst ineffective." [Reference: www.unep.org/PCFV/documents/PubELCI-ULP.pdf] As long as you let the Minister know that there is help available by emailing pcfv@unep.org and that your organisation demands an action plan to achieve the earliest possible phase-out date - for example in 6 weeks from now - then you should receive an answer to your letter and hopefully it will be positive! Good luck! Don't forget to web-publish your letter to the Minister (on your website if you have one or the website of any other NGO who will help you) and maybe put out a media release. Please write again to let me know how you are going and with more details about Mongolia's air pollution. Regards Elizabeth O'Brien |
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