Sources of Mercury and Health Effect

While liquid gold may be a modern allegory for something desirable, there is another liquid metal that is quite the opposite of desirable. Mercury is an unusual metal in that in its standard elemental form it is a liquid. Due to the increase in industry over the last 100 years, Mercury levels have risen, which cause serious damage to humans.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines for safe exposure level to mercury are one-tenth of a microgram (mcg) per kilogram of body weight. Children received about 237 mcg of Thimerosal by two years old with the first 200 mcg administered before six months old. Thimerosal is an ethylmercury preservative (about 49.6 percent mercury by weight) used in vaccines to add shelf life to the vaccine. Thimerosal is about 50 times more toxic due to it being injected, there is no blood–brain barrier in infants, mercury clings to brain cells and nerves, and infants do not create bile therefore the mercury cannot be excreted. PDD-NOS are the largest group and are characterized by four other different disorders. The four disorders

As already stated, many other locations around the world are affected by mercury poisoning and contamination. For example, Canada and Japan have an extensive history of mercury poisoning, including neurologic symptoms and contaminated fish. These studies have has been documented since the 1950’s in these locations. In fact, the contamination became so problematic the Ontario health department formed a task force on organic mercury in 1972. Further, recent protesting throughout Toronto has asked for Canada to address the contamination of mercury. Findings revealed levels of mercury exceeding those of international standards and included the highest recorded mercury contamination among in the western part of the world. (CITE 6)

It can be released anthropogenically, naturally or re-emitted by some combination of the previous two sources but most mercury was originally released from anthropogenic activities [8]. Burning fossil fuels and small-scale gold mining are the main sources of these anthropogenic emission [9].

Humans are primarily exposed to mercury through the consumption of freshwater and marine animals that have accumulated methylmercury in their fatty tissues 4. Mercury is absorbed in gastrointestinal (GI) tissues through dietary consumption. From the GI tract, mercury enters surrounding tissues and the blood stream where it can be transported throughout the body 8. The health consequences of mercury are resultant of the intracellular binding of organelles essential for cellular function 3. Thus, mercury exposure at a cellular level can cause cellular degradation and eventual

Also, water from gas wells often returns to the surface containing low, but measurable radioactive elements, and huge concentrations of salt.

One of the disadvantage of mercury is that it is toxic in nature due to which it has to be handled with care. Due to which it can result in death of people if they get mercury poisoning and if it is not treated in time. Due to mercury we are now able to make thermometers and barometers which has helped the people a lot. Due to it has helped us to find

Potential food sources: The light energy from the sun is the biggest food sources. Since Mercury is the closest to the sun out of all the planets, only 43 million

Based on the Gamma-ray spectrometer the ratios measured from the surface implies that Mercury is volatile rich compared to some other terrestrial planets. However, Mercury is the most reduced of the terrestrial planets and elements that typically behave as lithophile elements may behave differently in an oxygen-starved magmatic system like Mercury. In conclusion, even with the data that has been collected, scientists cannot declare Mercury to either volatile-rich or

2.1 Mercury in the Arctic marine environments: As there are practically no point sources of industrial Hg close to the Arctic environment, the main source of Hg is from long range atmospheric transport (from lower latitude) particularly from Asia, Europe and North American emissions and other geologic sources (Braune et al., 1991). Despite significant Hg coming to the Arctic through long range atmospheric transport, the riverine (i.e., terrestrial runoff) and costal erosion or thawing permafrost input the same order of magnitude of Hg in Arctic marine waters or even higher than the atmospheric depositional flux (AMAP, 2005; Outridge et al., 2008; Fisher et al., 2012). Gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) (Hg0), reactive gaseous mercury (RGM, Hg2+) and methylmercury (MeHg) (organometallic) are the

Natural Radioactivity some say is a result of a nuclear reaction, which occurs spontaneously. It is the process of Natural Radioactive Decay in which their nucleus breaks apart, undergoing nuclear decay. This happens because the force that usually holds the nucleus together with the protons and neutrons repelling one-another is not able to do its job. So the nucleus breaks apart undergoing nuclear decay. All radiation exists in nature and is found in soil, rocks, water, air and vegetation. The biggest source of Natural Radioactivity is airborne radon, which is inhaled at a dose of 1.26 mSv/a per year. Radon is quite deadly and is the reason over 3,000 deaths every year from lung cancer.

Unfortunately, these pollutants can be carried in the atmosphere by weather systems. Thus, they can travel for hundreds of miles causing damage as they go. Acid deposits in the soil can have devastating affects in the forest. It gradually causes the loss of plant nutrients, calcium and magnesium. This leads to dying off of trees in the forest. Also, acid deposits in lakes and streams have led to a drop in fish production. Mercury is another source of pollution which can be harmful to humans and wildlife. It comes from the emissions of coal-burning power plants and is deposited into the air and water. This chemical damages the nervous system, and has a detrimental affect on reproduction and prenatal development.

The people with the most risk of damage by mercury are unborn fetuses and children. Studies seem to show that the metal

On a global scale, it is stated that while 10% of the total mercury emissions into the atmosphere annually is from natural sources and 30% is of anthropogenic origins, 60% of it is re-emission and re-mobilisation. Such re-emission results from the natural conversion of deposited inorganic and organic forms of mercury to elemental mercury, which is evaporative and thus readily returns to the air during forest fires and other natural events, producing a continuous global mercury cycle in the

Mercury is a volatile element and is highly toxic with limit of 0.1 mg m-3 in the air.