Mercury pollution by Art Tejada

Before I discuss about my topic about mercury pollution let's define first "Mercury", Mercury is

Mercury occurs naturally in the environment. Sometimes known as quicksilver, it is a heavy metal,

like lead or cadmium, that exists in different chemical forms:Elemental mercury or metallic mercury is the
element in its pure, ‘un-combined’ form. It is a shiny, silver-white metal that is liquid at room temperature,
but is rarely found in this form in nature. If not sealed off, mercury slowly evaporates into the air,
forming a vapour. The quantity of vapour formed increases as temperatures rise.
Elemental mercury is traditionally used in thermometers and some electrical switches.include mercuric sulphide
(HgS), mercuric oxide (HgO) and mercuric chloride (HgCl₂).
Most of these are white powders or crystals,
except for mercuric sulphide which is red and turns black after exposure to light.
Some mercury salts, such as mercury chloride, also form vapour,
but they stay in the air for a shorter time than elemental mercury because they are more soluble in water
and more reactive.Organic mercury is formed when mercury combines with carbon and other elements.
Examples of organic mercury compounds are dimethylmercury, phenylmercuric

Several forms of mercury exist naturally in the environment,
the most common being metallic mercury,
mercuric sulphide, mercuric chloride, and methylmercury.

Natural processes can change the mercury from one form to another.
For instance, chemical reactions in the atmosphere can transform elemental mercury into
inorganic mercury.

Some micro-organisms can produce organic mercury, particularly methylmercury,
from other mercury forms. Methylmercury can accumulate in living organisms and reach high
levels in fish and marine mammals via a process called biomagnification
(i.e. concentrations increase in the food chain).

Because mercury is one of the basic chemical elements, of which all things are made,
it cannot be broken down or degraded into something else.
Once released into the biosphere through natural events or human activities,
mercury readily moves and cycles through the environment.
Soil, water bodies and the sediments underneath them are believed to
be the places where mercury comes to rest until it is ultimately removed from the biosphere again.

I gather some information about compact fluorescent light bulbs or CFLs and how great they are because they save energy and money, but are they actually dangerous just because they contain mercury? Find out when experts shed some light on how safe and eco-friendly they are.

Not so sure about the facts as stated: "Because CFLs are 75 percent more efficient than incandescents, producing the electricity needed to power an incandescent bulb causes four times the mercury pollution than does producing the power to run an equivalent CFL." Who came up witth the amount of mercury pollution in power plants? Only coal fired power plants, and only soft coal fired plants-then I could believe this. But because so much of our energy comes from other sourced power plants, I doubt the overall mercury pollution effect is 4 times. Maybe closer to equal. BUT I still believe it is a better route to go because one is actual pollution into the atmosphere. The other is a possible pollution.
And this is my research all about...,

In the Amazon River basin in Brazil, placer mining boomed at the end of the 1970’s; many people began mining riverbeds and the ground of tropical forests.
Since miners used metallic mercury for refining placer ores, released mercury polluted the river and its basin.
Similar mercury pollution problems occurred in Tanzania, the Philippines, Indonesia, China, and several other countries.
To date, studies of these pollution problems have revealed that mercury released into rivers were converted to methylmercury, ] and accumulated in fish living in the rivers concerned.
In addition to the inorganic mercury poisoning afflicting miners, therefore, methylmercury poisoning is likely to affect the health of residents in the relevant basins, particularly those living along the lower reaches of the rivers.
To address such potential health problems, scientists of various nations visited polluted areas to jointly survey the degrees of pollution and its influence on the health of residents.

circulation of mercury released by gold(placer) miners in the Amazon River basin

Metallic mercury(Hg0) used for refining placer ores is released from miners’ rafts into the river water. Of the amount, 55-60% evaporates, while the remaining 40-45% falls into the water. In the air, the evaporated Hg0 is oxidized by water(H2O) and ozone(O3), and becomes mercury ion(Hg2+), which then falls onto the ground with rain. If it falls on ground of acid soil(around pH4), Hg2+ transforms to organic methylmercury(Hg(CH3)+), which is the immediately taken in by organisms living in the soil. The methylmercury then undergoes bioaccumulation through the food web.