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Mercury Pollution From Human Activities is Declining–With a 10% Drop in Emissions, Say MIT Scientists https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/mercury-pollution-from-human-activities-is-declining-with-a-10-drop-in-emissions-say-mit-scientists/
MIT researchers discovered unexpected decline in mercury emissions from human activity, dropping by 10% over the past two decades.
Humans have increased the concentration of potentially toxic mercury in the atmosphere sevenfold since the beginning of the modern era aroun
Humans have increased the concentration of potentially toxic mercury in the atmosphere sevenfold since the beginning of the modern era around 1500 C.E., according to new research from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). The research team, led by Elsie M. Sunderland, the Fred Kavli Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, developed a new method to accurately estimate how much mercury is emitted annually from volcanos, the largest single natural emitter of mercury. The team used that estimate—along with a computer model—to reconstruct pre-anthropogenic atmospheric mercury levels. The researchers estimated that before humans started pumping mercury into the atmosphere, it contained on average about 580 megagrams of mercury. However, in 2015, independent research that looked at all available atmospheric measurements estimated the atmospheric mercury reservoir was about 4,000 Mg—nearly 7 times larger than the natural condition estimated in this study.
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While alpine lakes in Mount Rainier National Park may seem pristine, they can in fact have elevated levels of mercury as a result of airborne pollutants from as far away as China. How do we know this? With the help of citizen scientist volunteers and dragonfly larvae! Each year, citizen scientists collect larval dragonflies from selected alpine lakes on Mount Rainier as part of the Dragonfly Mercury Project.
Though we tend to think of dragonflies in their flying adult forms, they can spend up to nine years below the surface of a lake or pond in their larval state before sprouting their wings and taking to the air. During this below-water larval period, dragonflies serve as both a predator and prey species, meaning that they both consume mercury present in the water system and pass that mercury up in the food chain as they are eaten by fish, birds, and other predators. Therefore, analyzing the amount of mercury in dragonfly larvae is an excellent way of judging how much mercury is present in a particular lake.
NPS Photo of Reflection Lakes, 10/3/18. ~kl
Scientists issued a new alarm on the devastating impacts of continued burning of fossil fuels. But the Trump E.P.A. keeps propping up coal.
While “scientists set 2030 deadline to stop climate disaster“, Republicans continue to do the bidding 💰 💰 💰 of the Fossil Fuels lobby and industry. And they won’t be satisfied until every last drop is burned. #RepublicanSwamp #FossilFuelLobby
“The E.P.A.’s bedrock mission is to protect public health and welfare. Its basic tools are 50 years of federal clean air and water laws meant to limit Americans’ exposure to environmental poisons and pollutants.”
Every so often an administration comes along that seems to forget this mission. We have one now. Andrew Wheeler, the agency’s acting administrator, is clearly a great improvement in moral terms over his ethically challenged and thankfully departed predecessor, Scott Pruitt.
Wheeler’s ideology and policies, however, are much the same, weighted in favor of the industries
Wheeler once represented as a handsomely paid lobbyist, and against the health needs of Americans.
Like the president he serves, Mr. Wheeler displays little concern for climate change and its epochal challenges.
The latest example is a proposal his agency sent to the White House for review and approval that would, in broadest terms, greatly devalue the public health benefits of reducing air pollution. The proposal is specifically aimed at a 2011 finding by the Obama administration that when the agency devises rules to control a particular pollutant — mercury, in this case — it must take into account not only the compliance costs to industry but the additional health benefits that arise from the reduction in other harmful gases like soot and smog that occur as a side effect.
The Wheeler proposal would disallow any calculation of these side benefits and allow only those associated with the regulated pollutant.
“So chalk up another win for Robert Murray, the far-right Trump confidante and chief executive of the Murray Energy Corporation”
a big coal producer for which Mr. Wheeler served as an attorney and lobbyist. Mr. Murray requested the mercury rollback as one of 16 items on a wish list he presented last year to the Trump administration. He is one of several coal barons who lobbied the administration to revisit the cost-benefit rules to set a precedent for future regulations.
“Near the top of Mr. Murray’s to-do list, higher even than mercury, was the repeal and replacement of the Clean Power Plan, a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s strategy to fight global warming.”
Republicans, why is the government handing out $21 BILLION in Fossil Fuel Subsidies each year?
Ongoing contamination 'unequivocally related' from mercury spilled decades ago at paper mill, scientists say
A team of scientists has released a report suggesting that an old chemical plant in Dryden, Ont., is still leaking mercury and contaminating the Wabigoon-English River system upstream from the Grassy Narrows First Nation in northwestern Ontario.
Last summer, the team sampled the mud at the bottom of the river as it passed the old paper mill site where paper was bleached and from two lakes upstream.
Ontario commits to cleanup of mercury contamination near Grassy Narrows First Nation
New generation suffering mercury poisoning at Grassy Narrows, Ont.
At a news conference in Toronto on Tuesday, the team announced that mercury levels in the mud are low until the river passes the plant site.
"The concentrations at the mill site and downstream to the mill site are unequivocally related to mercury contamination, industrial mercury contamination — these can't be derived from natural sources," said Brian Branfireun, a biology professor at Western University in London, Ont., and one of the authors of the report.
"If someone asked me to draw a textbook example of a point-source contamination issue this would be what that looks like."
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Exclusive: More than 98% of fish and mussels tested in English waters contain mercury above EU safety limits
Britain is facing mounting pressure to ban mercury dental fillings, one of the few countries yet to prevent the practice, as new data reveals alarming contamination levels in the nation’s fish and shellfish. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can harm the nervous, digestive and immune systems, as well as the lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes, even at low levels of exposure. Its organic form, methylmercury, is particularly dangerous to unborn babies and can move through the food chain building up in insects, fish and birds. Britain is lagging behind the rest of the world on phasing out mercury dental fillings, with 43 countries having already banned mercury amalgam, including the EU, Sweden, Norway, Tanzania, Uganda, Indonesia and the Philippines. Northern Ireland will outlaw mercury fillings from 2035 but no such ban is planned in the rest of Britain. According to new analysis by the Rivers Trust and Wildlife and Countryside Link, more than 98% of fish and mussels tested in English rivers and coastal waters contain mercury above safety limits proposed by the EU, with more than half containing more than five times the recommended safe level. “Mercury can have really detrimental impacts on wildlife and is known to build up in the food chain, affecting species from fish and otters to buzzards,” said Dr Rob Collins, director of policy and science at the Rivers Trust. “With almost all fish in English rivers and coastal waters above proposed safety levels, the government needs to speed up action on mercury pollution.” Mercury from dental fillings enters the environment mainly through crematorium emissions, which release vaporised metal into the air when people with amalgam fillings are cremated. The mercury then settles on land and washes into rivers and seas.
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FTR, Sweden is in the EU.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a $134-million initiative aimed at phasing out mercury-based medical devices in
A recent study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports has revealed mercury contamination in the ancient water reservoir
Petén, Guatemala
Mayans used mercury was used to decorate ceremonial objects
The mercury was from another region there were no natural cinnabar deposits in those areas. So it was probably acquired by trade
Mercury sulfide, AKA cinnabar was found in three places where the mercury was at toxic threshold concentrations.
