For the past weeks, anti-whaling activists have been drafting a letter aimed at persuading governments to act, in particular, trying to draw attention to the issue of consuming meat of smaller whales and dolphins, known as small cetaceans.  They say dangerously high levels of mercury accumulate up the food chain.  Small cetaceans, like tooth whales and pilot whales, are near the top of it and therefore a lot more toxic compounds tend to accumulate in these mammals’ tissues than in smaller inhabitants of the marine world, warn the NGOs.

Currently, the WHO does not have any guidelines regarding the consumption of whale meat, but its website does list mercury as one of the top 10 chemicals of major public health concern.  The groups are hoping that their efforts will prompt the WHO to issue such advice in the near future.

But the government of one of the nations that consumes a lot of small cetaceans’ meat and blubber, the Faroe Islands in the North-East Atlantic, a self-governing nation within the Kingdom of Denmark, says that the people have been advised on the maximum amount deemed safe for the health – no more than one-to-two meals per month.

“It’s quite wrong to use the term ‘health hazard’,” Kate Sanderson, director of the department of oceans and environment of Faroes’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told BBC News.

“It’s true that pilot whales have very high levels of mercury in the meat and PCBs in the blubber and in 1998, the relevant health authorities at the Faroes issued a safety recommendation advising people on how much it was safe to eat. And people have taken that advice on board.”

Read full article

Normal air concentrations at remote UK sites are between 1.4 -1.5 ng/m3. Higher concentrations can be seen if air has passed over a coal-burning power station, a crematorium, an industrial source of mercury or a volcano before reaching the site. If the plume from Eyjafjallajökull reached the ground we would expect to see a significant increase in concentration. When elevated mercury levels are observed, to verify the origin of the mercury links to the source, e.g. the volcano, would then need to be made by following the path of the air prior to reaching the measurement site. Even at concentrations several times larger than the norm, elemental mercury in air poses no threat to human health.

This is the first time the federal government has restricted emissions from existing cement kilns. The regulations aim to reduce, by 2013, the annual emissions of mercury and particulate matter by 92 percent, hydrochloric acid by 97 percent and sulphur dioxide by 78 percent.  The rules are expected to yield $7 to $19 in public health benefits for every dollar in costs. EPA estimates that the rules will yield $6.7 billion to $18 billion in health and environmental benefits, with costs estimated at $926 million to $950 million annually in 2013. Another EPA analysis estimates emission reductions and costs will be lower, with costs projected to be $350 million annually.

The cement industry waged an intense lobbying campaign against the regulations, which the EPA first proposed in 2009.  The final rules slightly increase mercury limits, but EPA officials said the overall emissions limits did not “appreciably change” from what they first proposed, the Los Angeles Times reported.  Patti Flesher, a spokeswoman for the Portland Cement Association, said that some of the 100 cement plants nationwide wouldn’t be able to meet the new standards and would have to close, the Miami Herald reported. (Link to Environmental Leader)

High Mercury Levels Found in Burmese Pythons in the Everglades:

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2546

Some invasive Burmese pythons have high levels of mercury, enough to merit concern from anyone interested in hunting them to eat, according to preliminary research by USGS researchers. Pythons are at the top of the food chain –they eat over 35 different species of mammals and birds, some of which are endangered and even alligators. As predators, these pythons are at a higher risk of mercury bioaccumulation because mercury builds up in organisms higher on the food web. One possible strategy to reduce the population of invasive pythons is to allow hunting; however, if the mercury content of the pythons is too high, the flesh of the pythons could present an unsafe level of mercury exposure to those humans who consume it. So far, the USGS Mercury Research Laboratory has analyzed over 50 python tail-tissue samples, with about equal numbers of adults and hatchlings.  These results show that on average, tissue from the adults contained high levels of mercury, and the hatchlings were on average 22 times lower in mercury levels than their mother. An additional 100 samples are scheduled for further examination. This study, Mercury Bioaccumulation in Everglades Pythons, will be presented on July 15 in the afternoon poster session. For more information, contact David Krabbenhoft at 608-335-4234 or atdpkrabbe@usgs.gov

Researchers say large fires may contribute to mercury in fish in southwest Colorado

http://www.colorado.edu/news/r/6d84cd710276293086e23fd58d72e749.html

Forest fires that have burned thousands of acres near Durango, Colorado, over the last several years may be responsible for unlocking the mercury trapped beneath the soil in the San Juan National Forest and allowing it to wash into Vallecito Reservoir northeast of Durango, according to preliminary findings by a University of Colorado at Boulder engineering Professor, Joseph Ryan.

Vallecito is one of five reservoirs in the Four Corners region under fish consumption advisories due to elevated mercury levels in fish. The reservoir is used for recreational fishing, irrigation and water sports.

Coal-fired power plants in the Four Corners region are believed to be the primary source of mercury in La Plata and Montezuma counties. The mercury would be harmless if not for the sulfate-reducing bacteria beneath the soil that turns it into methylmercury, a toxic substance that is readily absorbed in the fatty tissues of organisms, according to Ryan.

When a large forest fire such as the 2002 Missionary Ridge Fire burns through an area containing mercury from atmospheric deposition, it appears to make matters worse by oxidizing sulfur molecules that bind the mercury in organic matter in the soil. This causes the mercury to be released and allows it to be more readily converted to methylmercury.

“We think the Missionary Ridge fire might have resulted in the fish consumption advisories for mercury that are now in effect at Vallecito Reservoir,” Ryan said.

For more information on the Colorado Fish Tissue study and fish consumption advisories, go to http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/wq/FishCon/index.html .

Fish Mercury Concentrations Decrease in the 1970s and 80s; Recent Trends Show Variation

USGS Newsroom, 21 June 2010

A recent U.S. Geological Survey study examined a compilation of state and federal fish-monitoring data for trends in mercury levels in fish from 1969 to 2005 in U.S. rivers and lakes.  Twenty-two of 50 sites sampled across the nation from 1969 to 1987 showed significant decreases in fish mercury concentration, whereas only four sites showed increases. Where decreases were observed, mercury concentrations in fish decreased rapidly in the 1970s and more gradually or not at all during the 1980s.

Trends were more variable from 1996 to 2005. Upward trends may, in part, be attributed to a greater influence of long-range global mercury emissions in the Southeast. In general, however, fish mercury concentrations did not change from 1996-2005.  The report, “Mercury trends in fish from rivers and lakes in the United States, 1969-2005,” was published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, and is available online with other materials.

This USGS study was implemented by the National Water-Quality Assessment Program, which was initiated in 1991 to support national, regional, state and local information needs and decisions related to water-quality management and policy. The NAWQA Program is designed to answer: What is the condition of our nation’s streams and groundwater? How are the conditions changing over time? How do natural features and human activities affect the quality of streams and groundwater, and where are those effects most pronounced? By combining information on water chemistry, physical characteristics, stream habitat and aquatic life, the NAWQA Program aims to provide science-based insights for current and emerging water issues and priorities.

Chalmers et al, 2010, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Mercury levels increasing in popular species of Lake Erie game fish

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Mercury+levels+increasing+popular+species+Lake+Erie+game+fish/3281158/story.html#ixzz0tptPjLIi

OTTAWA — Mercury levels in a species of Lake Erie game fish are increasing after two decades of steady decline, scientists report. The joint study by researchers from the Ontario and federal government and the University of Toronto is the most comprehensive to date on mercury levels in Great Lakes fish, and was published in the journal ACS Environmental Science & Technology.

An analysis of the nearly 6,000 samples of lake trout and walleye collected from the lakes between the 1970s and 2007 showed that concentrations in the fish steadily declined in that period in the upper Great Lakes — Superior and Huron. But between 1990 and 2007, despite a levelling off of mercury concentrations in Lake Ontario walleye, contamination increased in Lake Erie walleye.  Researchers hypothesize that the invasions of dreissenid mussels and round goby fish in the ecosystem contributed to the rise in Lake Erie mercury concentrations.  Bhavsar et al (2010)

Mercury found in fish from S.F. water supply

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-07-07/news/21940413_1_mercury-levels-methyl-mercury-young-children-and-women

Largemouth bass at Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir, which collects rainwater as well as water piped in from Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy reservoir, had some of the highest mercury levels in California.  The study was done by researchers at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, who released the results of the two-year project in June. They sampled sport fish at nearly 300 popular fishing lakes in California for methyl mercury, PCBs, DDT and other contaminants. Twenty-one percent of the lakes, including Crystal Springs, had at least one fish species with mercury concentration above 0.44 parts per million – a level considered unsafe for ingestion by young children and women of child-bearing age. However, the contamination doesn’t indicate that the water itself is unsafe.

At many of the lakes, the mercury results weren’t wholly unexpected. San Jose’s Almaden Lake, which had the highest fish mercury levels in the state, is in a geological zone rich with mercury, extracted during the 1800s for its ability to bind with gold. Fishing is allowed at Almaden, but signs in several languages warn against eating fish pulled from that lake and others in the area. To help control mercury levels at Almaden, the Santa Clara Valley Water District is aerating the water – adding oxygen to reduce the bacteria that mixes with mercury to form the toxic methyl mercury.

Mercury in the Crystal Springs area may be coming from a source other than local sediments, according to Jay Davis, senior scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, and Tim Ramirez, manager for natural resources and land management at the San Francisco Public Utilities commission’s water enterprise division.

“It’s still possible that geology in the (Crystal Springs) watershed could contribute to the contamination we see, but it seems like a case where atmospheric deposition might play a role,” Davis said.  “It’s not of immediate concern to people right now, but we want to know what’s happening,” Ramirez said. “That said, if it’s airborne pollution from a global source, that’s going to be hard for us to do something about.”

Mercury poisoning-dark side of Colombia’s gold boom

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66C62L20100713

BOGOTA, July 13 (Reuters) – Colombia’s gold bonanza has a dark side, U.N. experts said on Tuesday: mercury poisoning spreading from miners to the population of a northwest state where they use mercury to extract the precious metal, U.N. experts said on Tuesday.  Analysts say Colombia is one of the world’s top mercury polluters, as 50 to 100 tonnes of mercury are lost annually in the process of capturing gold .

“As prices of gold have been increasing, more artisanal miners are mining and processing gold using mercury which is accessible, easier and cheaper to use,” said Marcello Veiga, an adviser to the U.N. industrial development arm.  Miners have used mercury to separate gold for decades, but part of it is lost in the process, contaminating rivers and soils. The environment ministry currently allows mercury but may soon forbid it, with a few exceptions.

In northwest Antioquia state, they use the most damaging process, adding around 120 grams (4.2 ounces) of mercury to 60 kilograms (132 pounds) of ore, without condensing or capturing the mercury, Veiga said.  As a result, mercury levels in some urban areas of Remedios, Segovia and Zaragosa can be 1,000 times higher than the levels accepted by the World Health Organization, he said.

“Around 15 kidney transplants are carried out in Remedios every year … because mercury vapor stays in the kidneys, damaging them,” Veiga said, citing data from the Remedios department of health.

Colombia is experiencing a gold boom with more than 40 companies exploring for the metal and production likely to grow over the next two years to around 3 million troy ounces (93.3 kilograms) of gold, the mining regulator says.  The United Nations calls for a gradual elimination of mercury in mining as miners switch over to use of centrifuges, which allow for greater gold extraction than mercury. “With the centrifuge, small miners can produce twice as much gold than using mercury without affecting their health or the environment,” said Monica Roeser, who leads the Global Mercury Project in Colombia for the United Nations.

Dr John Holmes presenting at UNEP INC1 7-11 June 2010. (Photo credit IISD.org)

Dr Holmes presented the IKIMP ‘Decision Making Framework’ in a combined presentation titled A Strategic Framework for Decision Making and Technical Concepts for Storage and Disposal of Elemental Mercury with Sven Hagemann, GRS.

Should you wish to keep up to date with events the IISD website and Chemical Watch are providing coverage of events, but for real-time commentary there is even a twitter feed (#Mercury_INC).

The IISD Reporting Service provides commentary on each days proceedings :

• Monday, 7 June 2010
• Tuesday, 8 June 2010
• Wednesday, 9 June 2010
• Thursday, 10 June 2010
• Friday, 11 June 2010

The INC1 Meeting documents are available on the UNEP Mercury website.

See an interview with Andreas Carlgren, Minister for the Environment in Sweden, at UNEP’s INC1 Conference.

Professor Ed Tipping, who researches environmental chemistry at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, and colleagues surveyed the scientific journals and compiled the results of experiments testing the toxic effects of mercury on 52 organisms, including plants, animals and microbes.  They joined together the maximum amount of mercury in the soil that each of these 52 species could tolerate and concluded that 95 per cent of the organisms would be safe with a mercury concentration of 0.13 microgrammes of mercury per gram of soil.

There is another route to determining these limits. Organic matter in soils can take up mercury, reducing the amount available in the soil as a pollutant. Soils rich in organic matter, such as peat, can tolerate higher amounts of mercury. This means that ‘another useful way of expressing the critical limit of mercury is per gram of organic matter,’ says Tipping.

This method gives a critical limit of 3.3 microgrammes of mercury per gram of organic matter in the soil. The value, reported in Environmental Pollution, is considerably higher than the value of 0.5 microgrammes per gram of organic matter currently in use to calculate critical mercury loads.

Planet Earth Online 20 May 2010

Tipping, E, et al, Critical Limits for Hg(II) in soils, derived from chronic toxicity data, Environmental Pollution (2010),  doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2010.03.027

Gold mining without mercury

Canadian residents demand action on mercury in water

Effects of very low levels of methylmercury on Arctic mamals

Studies Aim to Resolve Confusion Over Mercury Risks From Fish US News April 21 2010 LA Times April 22 2010

Jacob Lowenstein of Columbia University and his colleagues, found that not all tuna species have the same mercury content, and that not all parts of the fish have equal mercury content.  “We found that mercury levels are linked to specific species,” says Lowenstein. “So far, the U.S. does not require restaurants and merchants to clarify what species they are selling or trading, but species names and clearer labeling would allow consumers to exercise greater control over the level of mercury they imbibe.”

One hundred samples of sushi tuna were taken over a two-year period from 54 restaurants and 15 supermarkets in New York, New Jersey and Colorado and analyzed for mercury content.  Overall, researchers found concentrations of mercury lower in supermarket samples than restaurant samples. Higher mercury concentrations were found in bluefin akami tuna and all bigeye tuna samples than in bluefin toro (fatty tuna) and yellowfin. Supermarket sushi and sashimi usually feature yellowfin tuna.  Owing to the high mercury contamination in some of the sushi samples, Lowenstein’s group concludes that “[government] health agencies should consider adding bigeye and bluefin tuna to mercury advisories” — fish to be avoided by especially vulnerable groups, such as pregnant and nursing women or young children.  [Lowenstein et al (2010) Biology Letters DNA barcodes reveal species-specific mercury levels in tuna sushi that pose a health risk to consumers]

Shawn Gerstenberger and his colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas took on the more prosaic form of this fish: canned tuna.    The toxicologist and his team initially bought 155 cans of solid-white, chunk-white and chunk-light tuna. All came from three of the most popular US national brands. The white consists of albacore only; light is mostly skipjack tuna. In the February Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, they report finding that average mercury concentrations in all three brands of tuna exceeded EPA’s 0.5 ppm advisory, and the average for one brand was more than 0.7 ppm. Depending on the brand, 4 to 7 percent of the tuna surpassed even FDA’s action level.

Canned tuna is a low-cost, low-fat source of protein. Indeed, it’s subsidized as a good source of nutrition by the federal Women, Infants and Children program. However, because of his team’s new data, Gerstenberger argues that “stricter regulation of the mercury in canned tuna is necessary.” At 0.5 ppm mercury in canned tuna, a 25-kilogram (55-pound) child can safely eat only one serving every two weeks, his team calculates. Increase that contamination to 0.77 ppm mercury, the average for one of the brands his group tested, and the same child should not eat a serving of tuna more than once every three weeks and two days, they calculate.  Gerstenberger would like to see FDA and EPA develop a clear, consistent policy on how much mercury can be eaten safely.  [Gerstenberger et al (2010) An evaluation of mercury concentrations in three brands of canned tuna]

New studies have shown that over a third of mercury in the US diet comes from tuna, and that not all tuna are equal in mercury content.  A study by Edward Groth in the journal Environmental Research analysed the US consumption of seafood and the mercury levels of each species to reveal that 37.4% of the US’s mercury consumption is from tuna.  Groth, a New York City–based consultant, pored over FDA’s database for mercury contamination in 51 different varieties of fish and found a 100-fold difference from the least contaminated (shrimp, tilapia and clams) to the most tainted (tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico). Groth reviews relative mercury concentrations by fish type and then groups popular ones by mercury level into a chart that can fit into a wallet.  Despite mercury’s lingering presence, Groth maintains, “everybody should eat fish — more than most now eat.” Yet until now, he says, “consumers haven’t had the information they need to make smart decisions.” But emerging data are identifying some lower contaminated species, he says, and by focusing on them, most consumers should be able to avoid harmful exposures.  Link to mercury in fish chart [Groth (2010) Ranking the contributions of commercial fish and shellfish varieties to mercury exposure in the United States: Implications for risk communication.]

Peruvian eyes “green gold” to end mercury dumping Reuters April 21 2010

A Peruvian engineer, Carlos Villachica, says he has come up with an environmentally sound way to isolate gold from clumps of sand without using toxic mercury that wildcat miners in the Amazon basin rely on to extract the precious metal, then dump into rivers.  The machine would produce up to 95 percent of the gold obtained by using mercury by wildcat miners, who often put their own health at risk by exposing themselves to the toxic metal.   Peru is the world’s No. 6 producer of the precious metal and shipments of gold and other metals make up 60 percent of its exports.  Patrick Taylor and Corby Anderson, two colleagues at the Colorado School of Mines, said it remains to be seen what the invention is capable of doing. “He might be reaping some gold, but we would need to see the results. He’s not going to produce pure gold, just a concentrate,” Anderson said. But, Taylor said, there is room for testing new technologies.

Grassy Narrows residents demand provincial action on mercury in the water. CBC news April 7 2010

The environmental group Earthroots released a study Tuesday supporting the reserve’s argument that mercury problems persist. A Dryden, Ont., paper mill dumped the equivalent of 9,000 kilograms of mercury into the Wabigoon River between 1962 and 1970, causing long-term health problems for more than 100 people in the community, Earthroots said.

Dr. Masazumi Harada, a Japanese mercury expert involved in the Earthroots study, first visited Grassy Narrows in 1975. He found some residents with mercury levels over three times the Health Canada limit.  Harada visited again several years ago and found 43 per cent of the people who had mercury levels above Health Canada guidelines in 1975 had died. Even residents whose mercury levels were within the limits set by Health Canada were still experiencing mercury-related problems, Harada found.

Papers in the Atmospheric Mercury ACPD Special Issue:

Global mercury emissions to the atmosphere from anthropogenic and natural sources (Pirrone et al)

Worldwide atmospheric mercury measurements: a review and synthesis of spatial and temporal trends (Sprovieri et al)

Circumpolar measurements of speciated mercury, ozone and carbon monoxide in the boundary layer of the Arctic Ocean (Sommar et a l)

Estimating mercury emission outflow from East Asia using CMAQ-Hg  ( Lin et al)

Source apportionment of mercury in dust fallout at urban residential area of Central India (Pervez et al)

Toward a real-time measurement of atmospheric mercury concentrations using cavity ring-down spectroscopy ( Faïn et al)

Bimodal variation in mercury wet deposition to the coastal zone of the southern Baltic ( Siudek et al)

Atmospheric total gaseous mercury (TGM) concentrations and wet and dry deposition of mercury at a high-altitude mountain peak in south China (Fu et al)

Uncertainties in estimating mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants in China (Wu et al)

Mercury emission and speciation of coal-fired power plants in China (Wang et al)

An investigation of the origins of reactive gaseous mercury in the Mediterranean marine boundary layer (Sprovieri et al)

Identification of potential regional sources of atmospheric total gaseous mercury in Windsor, Ontario, Canada using hybrid receptor modeling (Xu and Akhtar)

A laboratory based experimental study of mercury emission from contaminated soils in the River Idrijca catchment (Kocman and Horvat)

Sediment records of highly variable mercury inputs to mountain lakes in Patagonia during the past millennium (Ribeiro Guevara et al)

Overview of mercury measurements in the Antarctic troposphere (Dommergue et al)

Effects of temperature and other atmospheric conditions on long-term gaseous mercury observations in the Arctic ( Cole and Steffen)

Mercury emission from crematories in Japan (Takaoka et al)

Atmospheric wet deposition of mercury and other trace elements in Pensacola, Florida (Landing et al)

Atmospheric deposition of mercury and major ions to the Pensacola Bay (Florida) watershed: spatial, seasonal, and inter-annual variability (Caffrey et al)

Study of spatiotemporal variation of atmospheric mercury and its human exposure around an integrated steel plant, India (Pervez et al)

Mercury air-borne emissions from 5 municipal solid waste landfills in Guiyang and Wuhan, China (Li et al)

Patterns of mercury dispersion from local and regional emission sources, rural Central Wisconsin, USA (Kolker et al)

Assessing the trends and effects of environmental parameters on the behavior of mercury in the lower atmosphere over cropped land over four seasons ( Baya and  van Heyst)

Long range transport of mercury to the Arctic and across Canada (Durnford et al)

Finding and removing mercury from environmental waters could soon be accomplished with an ‘all-in-one’ magnetic microsphere developed by Chinese scientists.   Shengyang Tao, from the Dalian University of Technology, and colleagues have created a nanocomposite microsphere that can detect, adsorb and remove mercury from water. Wang et al (2010)

The little blue pills that sent Abraham Lincoln into a rage (22 March 2010, link to Royal Society of Chemistry press release)

The Blue Mass pills taken as antidepressants by Abraham Lincoln contained dangerously high levels of mercury likely to have caused his notoriously wild temper, scientists have found.  Researchers who analysed a recently unearthed sample of the medicine discovered it contained up to 120 times the acceptable daily intake of mercury . 

Known as “blue mass,” the little blue pills were a 19th-century staple. They were prescribed for a host of ailments, including apoplexy, worms, child-bearing, tuberculosis, toothaches, and constipation.  Ian A. Greaves, an associate dean at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, reformulated “blue mass” using a 19th-century recipe, which included mercury, liquorice root, rosewater, honey, sugar, and dead rose petals. The ingredients were combined using a traditional mortar and pestle, and then shaped into the early pill’s typical size. The reconstructed “blue pill” was a round gray pellet the size of a peppercorn. If taken at the normally prescribed dose of the time—one pill two or three times a day—it would deliver nearly 9,000 times the amount of mercury that is deemed safe for people by current health standards. Hirschhorn et al 2001

The Royal Society of Chemistry is the first organisation to unearth an actual sample of the notorious blue pills.  The pills were discovered in a Devon museum four weeks ago after the RSC’s call in September for authentic Blue Mass pills to have them analysed to mark this year’s anniversary of Lincoln becoming President of the United States.

A British specialist laboratory, P S Analytical,  has measured the mercury content in the anti-depression pills, discovered in a mid-Victorian medicine chest from the Park Pharmacy Trust’s collection.  The findings confirm suspicions that the legendary ‘Blue Mass’ pills contained a dangerous level of mercury, leading to the President ingesting between 80-120 times the World Health Organisation acceptable daily intake.   (see also 23 March 2010 Daily Telegraph, July 17 2001, National geographic news)