The liquid metal mercury should be removed from home first aid kits and all medical devices by the end of the decade, health officials said yesterday.
The World Health Organisation yesterday brought forward the target date for the elimination of mercury to 2020.
Under an international convention the world is meant to eliminate mercury from medical measuring devices by 2030.
But WHO says the harm caused by mercury is so great that countries should seek to bring forward the date.
It is also planning action to phase out antiseptic creams based on mercury together with skin-lightening cosmetics.
And it wants to see dental amalgam "phased down".
WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said: “Mercury is one of the top ten chemicals of major public health concern and is a substance which disperses into and remains in ecosystems for generations, causing severe ill health and intellectual impairment to exposed populations.”
The call came as national representatives from five African countries met in Japan to step up measures to prevent mercury being used in small-scale gold mining.
Some 200,000 are thought to have been exposed to mercury through working in mines throughout Africa.
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