On behalf of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), Taiwan Ambassador Wallace M.G. Chow handed over a mercury deposition sampler to Ms. Roxanne Siual Blesam, Chief Executive Officer of Palau’s Environmental Quality Protection Board on February 3, 2020 to assist Palau measures mercury precipitation in its ecosystem.
Mercury is a hazardous pollutant that can reach far and wide, therefore the global community signed and put into effect the Minamata Convention on Mercury in 2017 to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury.
Monitoring the status of mercury in the ecosystem is the first step to protect human health. Taiwan EPA would like to work with Palau EQPB to monitor mercury in the environment and hopefully that will lead to measures to reduce mercury pollution.