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A compilation of field surveys on gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) from contrasting environmental settings in Europe,South America,South Africa and China: separating fads from facts |
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| Authors: | Pablo Higueras Roberto Oyarzun Joze Kotnik José María Esbrí Alba Martínez-Coronado Milena Horvat Miguel Angel López-Berdonces Willians Llanos Orlando Vaselli Barbara Nisi Nikolay Mashyanov Vladimir Ryzov Zdravko Spiric Nikolay Panichev Rob McCrindle Xinbin Feng Xuewu Fu Javier Lillo Jorge Loredo María Eugenia García Pura Alfonso Karla Villegas Silvia Palacios Jorge Oyarzún Hugo Maturana Felicia Contreras Melitón Adams Sergio Ribeiro-Guevara Luise Felipe Niecenski Salvatore Giammanco Jasna Huremović |
| Institution: | 1. Departamento de Ingeniería Geológica y Minera, Escuela Universitaria Politécnica de Almadén, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Plaza M. Meca 1, 13400, Almadén, Spain 2. Instituto de Geología Aplicada (IGeA), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Plaza M. Meca 1, 13400, Almadén, Spain 3. Departamento de Cristalografía y Mineralogía, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense, 28040, Madrid, Spain 4. Department of Environmental Sciences, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia 5. Exploraciones Mineras S.A. (EM), Avenida Apoquindo 4775, Providencia, Santiago, Chile 6. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Unversitá di Florence, Via G. Pira, 4, 50121, Florence, Italy 7. CNR-IGG Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124, Pisa, Italy 8. Department of Geology, St. Petersburg State University, 7/9 Universitetskaya nab., St., Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation 9. OIKON, Institute for Applied Ecology, Avenija Dubrovnik 6-8, 10 020, Zagreb, Croatia 10. Department of Chemistry, Tshwane University of Technology, P.O. Box 56208, Arcadia, Pretoria, 0007, South Africa 11. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550002, China 12. Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Tulipán s/n, 28933, Móstoles, Madrid, Spain 13. Departamento de Explotación y Prospección de Minas, E.T.S. Ingenieros de Minas, Universidad de Oviedo, C/Independencia 13, 33004, Oviedo, Spain 14. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Campus de Cota-Cota, La Paz, Bolivia 15. Departament d’Enginyeria Minera i Recursos Minerals, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain 16. Escuela de Postgrado, Universidad Técnica de Oruro, Oruro, Bolivia 17. Departamento de Ingeniería de Minas, Universidad de la Serena, La Serena, Chile 18. Facultad de Agronomía (Maracay), Universidad Central de Venezuela, Maracay, Venezuela 19. Centro Atomico, Bariloche, Argentina 20. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Porto Alegre, Brazil 21. Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Volcanologia, Catania, Italy 22. Prirodno matematicki fakultet, Sarajevo, Bosna and Herzegovina |
| Abstract: | Mercury is transported globally in the atmosphere mostly in gaseous elemental form (GEM, \( {\text{Hg}}_{\text{gas}}^{0} \) ), but still few worldwide studies taking into account different and contrasted environmental settings are available in a single publication. This work presents and discusses data from Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, China, Croatia, Finland, Italy, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Slovenia and Venezuela. We classified the information in four groups: (1) mining districts where this contaminant poses or has posed a risk for human populations and/or ecosystems; (2) cities, where the concentration of atmospheric mercury could be higher than normal due to the burning of fossil fuels and industrial activities; (3) areas with natural emissions from volcanoes; and (4) pristine areas where no anthropogenic influence was apparent. All the surveys were performed using portable LUMEX RA-915 series atomic absorption spectrometers. The results for cities fall within a low GEM concentration range that rarely exceeds 30 ng m?3, that is, 6.6 times lower than the restrictive ATSDR threshold (200 ng m?3) for chronic exposure to this pollutant. We also observed this behavior in the former mercury mining districts, where few data were above 200 ng m?3. We noted that high concentrations of GEM are localized phenomena that fade away in short distances. However, this does not imply that they do not pose a risk for those working in close proximity to the source. This is the case of the artisanal gold miners that heat the Au–Hg amalgam to vaporize mercury. In this respect, while GEM can be truly regarded as a hazard, because of possible physical–chemical transformations into other species, it is only under these localized conditions, implying exposure to high GEM concentrations, which it becomes a direct risk for humans. |
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