. This paper provides an up-to-date assessment of global mercury emissions from anthropogenic and natural sources. On an annual basis, natural sources account for 5207 Mg of mercury released to the global atmosphere, including the contribution from re-emission processes, which are emissions of previously deposited mercury originating from anthropogenic and natural sources, and primary emissions from natural reservoirs. Anthropogenic sources, which include a large number of industrial point sources, are estimated to account for 2320 Mg of mercury emitted annually. The major contributions are from fossil-fuel fired power plants (810 Mg yr−1), artisanal small scale gold mining (400 Mg yr−1), non-ferrous metals manufacturing (310 Mg yr−1), cement production (236 Mg yr−1), waste disposal (187 Mg yr−1) and caustic soda production (163 Mg yr−1). Therefore, our current estimate of global mercury emissions suggests that the overall contribution from natural sources (primary emissions + re-emissions) and anthropogenic sources is nearly 7527 Mg per year, the uncertainty associated with these estimates are related to the typology of emission sources and source regions.

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Global mercury emissions to the atmosphere from anthropogenic and natural sources

https://climategate.nl/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Kwik-Global-emission-2010..pdf

Global emission of mercury to the atmosphere from anthropogenic sources in 2005 and projections to 2020

The theory of environmental policy

http://cleanaircarolina.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Mercury-exposure-and-childrens-health.pdf

Mercury Exposure and Children’s Health

Mercury (Hg) is well studied and research continues as our knowledge of its health risks increases. One expanding area of research not well emphasized to date is the endocrine effects of Hg. This review summarizes the existing literature on the effects of Hg on the endocrine system and identifies gaps in the knowledge. It focuses on the thyroid, adrenal, and reproductive systems, including the accumulation of Hg in the endocrine system, sex differences that are manifested with Hg exposure, reproductive effects in male and female animals including humans, and Hg effects on the thyroid and adrenal systems. We concluded that there are five main endocrine-related mechanisms of Hg across these systems: (a) accumulation in the endocrine system; (b) specific cytotoxicity in endocrine tissues; (c) changes in hormone concentrations; (d) interactions with sex hormones; and (e) up-regulation or down-regulation of enzymes within the steroidogenesis pathway. Recommendations for key areas of research to better understand how the endocrine effects of Hg affect human and wildlife health were developed, and include increasing the amount of basic biological information available about Hg and wildlife species, exploring the role of Hg in the presence of other stressors and chemicals, understanding sublethal and indirect effects of Hg on adverse outcomes, developing better methods to extrapolate effects across species, and understanding the effects of Hg on multiple organ systems following exposure of an animal. Greater inclusion of endocrine endpoints in epidemiological and field studies on humans and wildlife will also advance the research in this area.

/pdf/the-endocrine-effects-of-mercury-in-humans-and-wildlife-4ojavez2rh.pdf

The endocrine effects of mercury in humans and wildlife

In the past, human activities often resulted in mercury releases to the biosphere with little consideration of undesirable consequences for the health of humans and wildlife. This paper outlines the pathways through which humans and wildlife are exposed to mercury. Fish consumption is the major route of exposure to methylmercury. Humans can also receive toxic doses of mercury through inhalation of elevated concentrations of gaseous elemental mercury. We propose that any effective strategy for reducing mercury exposures requires an examination of the complete life cycle of mercury. This paper examines the life cycle of mercury from a global perspective and then identifies several approaches to measuring the benefits of reducing mercury exposure, policy options for reducing Hg emissions, possible exposure reduction mechanisms, and issues associated with mercury risk assessment and communication for different populations.

/pdf/socioeconomic-consequences-of-mercury-use-and-pollution-43vs9d5vm8.pdf

Alan Penn

Papers

Socioeconomic Consequences of Mercury Use and Pollution