Mercury Pollution

The study was undertaken to assess the extent of mercury contamination in the soil and three types of leaf plants in
Campus AL-Mustansaryah University sites within Baghdad, Iraq, as well as to determine the relationship between environmental
parameters and the distribution of the mercury contamination with carbon in soil samples were collected and analyzed for inorganic
mercury. The highest mercury concentrations were recorded at the sites located lowest cover the plant and close to the diesel-electric
generators. Mercury concentrations in leaf plant Ziziphusspina-christi higher concentration than the rest type and soil were mostly
higher mercury concentration. Also ratio of carbon to coincide with the increase in the concentration of mercury in the soil of the
study areas. Mercury is more biologically because of his preference to bind with carbon. This research confirms that Campus
University is key areas for formation of bioavailable mercury distribution is tied to organic carbon

Laporan ini disusun sebagai kompilasi dari survey kesehatan lingkungan dan pemantauan merkuri di lingkungan dan dampaknya terhadap kesehatan masyarakat di 3 lokasi hotspots PESK di Indonesia: Bombana (Provinsi Sulawesi Tenggara), Sekotong (lombok Barat, Provinsi NTB) dan Cisitu (Provinsi Banten).

This dissertation addresses health risks factors associated with mercury (Hg) intake as a consequence of fish consumption among the Kuwaiti population. Hg is an established neurotoxin, and some studies have shown that it may also cause atherosclerotic lesions in blood vessels, leading to cardiovascular disease. For both of these reasons, it is important to gain a comprehensive understanding of the levels of fish consumed by the Kuwait population, the levels of mercury in fish consumed, as well as the physiological factors that influence uptake of Hg in the body. The three papers in this dissertation address each of these areas, individually.

In “Fish Consumption among Kuwaiti Nationals,” we assess the consumption patterns of the Kuwait population, including the types of fish that are consumed, the frequency with which they are consumed, and the average quantity of consumption among various age, sex, and ethnicity groups. In “Human Health Risks from Mercury in Fish,” we investigate the potential health effects to the Kuwaiti population as a results of current levels of fish consumption. In “Fish Consumption as a Determinant of Hair Mercury Levels among Kuwaiti Nationals,” we relate this consumption information to overall body burden of mercury for the purpose of better characterizing the relationship between intake of fish and corresponding hair Hg levels.

The order of papers in this dissertation is determined by the chronology of their conception. It should be noted that the third paper, “Fish Consumption as a Determinant of Hair Mercury Levels among Kuwaiti Nationals” indicates several changes should be made to “Human Health Risks from Mercury in Fish” risk assessment. This is primarily due to our treatment of fish with unknown Hg. In “Fish Consumption as a Determinant of Hair Mercury Levels among Kuwaiti Nationals,” we ultimately dropped from the analysis of the effect of fish consumption on body burden of mercury any and all fish with unknown Hg concentrations. “Human Health Risks from Mercury in Fish” was completed before this paper and instead extrapolated these values for fish or, as in the case of tuna, took as a proxy US and Canadian test values for Hg in fish. Subsequently, we decided that this was not an ideal approach.

It is hoped that these studies will inform future work in the areas of risk reduction and risk management, such that more accurate risk assessments may be undertaken in the future.

В рамках данного проекта была определена цель – разработка проекта правил по организации сбора отработанных энергосберегающих ртутьсодержащих ламп от юридических и физических лиц в г. Алматы
В соответствии с целью были поставлены следующие задачи проекта:
1. Сбор, систематизация и анализ информации об обращении с ртутьсодержащими отходами, в том числе с отработанных энергосберегающими лампами, в городе Алматы.
2. На основании оценки ежегодного объема образования ртутьсодержащих отходов, в том числе отработанных энергосберегающих ламп, подлежащих утилизации, провести анализ необходимых расходов на их сбор, вывоз, временное хранение и утилизацию. Оценка необходимости расширения существующих предприятий по переработке ртутьсодержащих отходов.
3.  Формирование плана мероприятий по внедрению сбора ртутьсодержащих отходов в Алматы.
4. Разработка предложений для включения изменений и дополнений в действующее природоохранное  законодательство в части возмещения расходов сбор, вывоз, временное хранение и утилизацию ртутьсодержащих отходов.

This report provides a general assessment and a preliminary source review of studies, norms, policies, and available information about the problem of mercury in countries in the Amazon Biome, mainly as a result of its use in informal and illegal gold mining.

This paper presents a brief description of the environmental disaster that occurred in Minamata, Japan, in the 1950s, and its consequences to the current society, emphasizing actions that seek the prevention of heavy metal poisoning, specifically mercury. The objective of this paper is to suggest strategies for environmental control and food safety, justified by the pursuit of improving society's quality of life and environmental monitoring. With research in literature, qualitative and descriptive research conducted, it was examined as is the awareness of society, from the time of the disaster, until recently. It was presented one of the most effective methods currently used to prevent mercury contamination. It was emphasized the importance of implementing a program of Fished contamination control, combined with environmental education tools in preventing accidents poisoning by mercury and its derivatives. If so it contributes to the improvement of environmental management and food safety assurance in the north coast region of São Paulo/BRAZIL.

Este trabalho apresenta uma breve descrição do desastre ambiental ocorrido em Minamata, Japão, na década de 1950, e suas consequências à sociedade atual, ressaltando ações que buscam a prevenção de intoxicação por metais pesados, especificamente o mercúrio. O objetivo deste trabalho é sugerir estratégias para o controle ambiental e segurança alimentar, justificado pela busca da melhoria da qualidade de vida da sociedade e pelo monitoramento do meio ambiente. Com pesquisas bibliográfica, qualitativa e descritiva realizadas, analisou-se como está a sensibilização da sociedade, desde a época do desastre, até recentemente. Apresentou-se um dos métodos mais eficazes atualmente utilizados, na prevenção de contaminação por mercúrio. Enfatizou-se a importância da implementação de um Programa de Controle de Contaminação de Pescados, aliado a ferramentas de educação ambiental, na prevenção de acidentes por intoxicação pelo mercúrio e seus derivados. Contribui-se assim, para o aperfeiçoamento da gestão ambiental e da garantia da segurança alimentar na região do litoral norte Paulista.

MICHELINO, F. A. S.; JUNG, D. R. - CASO MINAMATA: Lições aprendidas e próximos passos da sociedade. In: XII Congresso Nacional do Meio Ambiente de Poços de Caldas-MG. 20-22 maio, 2015. ISSN 2317- 9686. < http://www.meioambientepocos.com.br/anais/261.%20CASO%20MINAMATA_%20LI%C3%87%C3%95ES%20APRENDIDAS%20E%20PR%C3%93XIMOS%20PASSOS%20DA%20SOCIEDADE.doc >.

https://issuu.com/francisco.michelino/docs/artigo

In a celebrated essay, Gad Horowitz once observed that liberal thought in Canada has been either anemic or parasitic. Arguably, this comment aptly applies to the dozens of Ph.D. and Masters theses on the "Indian Problem" that have been written by Canadian scholars over the past few decades. Very few of these actually have an impact on policy-makers. Moreover, Indian communities have often decried their subjection to the whims of researchers. This new book by A. Shkilnyk, based on her Ph.D. work, has the potential to impact on policy-makers but it unfortunately still is a largely parasitic and partly anemic work in the tradition of liberal thought in Canada.
That said, it should be admitted this is an ambitious book. It attempts to synthesize a wide range of materials and will provide many readers with insights into the destruction of aboriginal peoples and their communities. Shkilnyk documents the horrible problems experienced by the Ojibwa people living on the Grassy Narrows/Whitedog Reserve over the past twenty-five years. She shows how their lives were devastated by changes that (despite public misconceptions) really took place in two phases.
The first phase began in the early 1960's when the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) attempted to provide residents on the isolated reserve with the benefits of modern industrial society. In the process, the well-intentioned planners from DIAND and Health and Welfare Canada completely undermined the existing social bonds and balances that existed in the community. Shkilnyk shows that modernization destroyed the traditional way of life which tied Grassy and Whitedog residents to the land through hunting and trapping, guiding, fishing and subsistence agriculture. With access to unemployment benefits, alcohol and other disruptive and previously unavailable influences the Ojibwa became vulnerable to manipulation for taxi drivers, bootleggers and other exploitative whites from nearby communities such as Kenora.
The second phase of the disruption process is more familiar to most Canadians. The poisoning of the English-Waibagoon River System with tonnes of mercury by the Dryden Pulp mill in 1970 has become a national embarrassment. A best-selling book has been written, a play on the problem toured the country in the 1970's, and the media have documented the tragedy in graphic detail. However, as Shkilnyk shows, all of this has been to no avail because the problems of violence, alcohol abuse and chronic unemployment faced by this community remain unresolved.

The increasing trend in concentration of metals in the environment has created considerable attention amongst ecologists globally during the last decades. However, no such studies have been carried out in India and there are no past metal load data available. Therefore, we initiated a study to estimate the levels of water pollution of the Upavan, Masunda, Makhmali and Rewale Lakes situated at Thane, the city on the North Eastern side of Mumbai. The study was performed to understand the physico-chemical parameters like pH, conductivity, alkalinity, salinity, hardness, chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of lake water. The study was also extended to understand the level of heavy metals like Cu, Zn, Ni, Cd, Hg, As and Fe. These heavy metals have a marked effect on the aquatic flora and fauna which through bio magnification enter the food chain thereby affecting the human beings.

‘The World has enough for everybody’s need, not everybody’s greed’ – these famous words of Mahatma Gandhi symbolize the project that we have undertaken. This project on the Pallikaranai Marsh is the first step in protecting a huge ecosystem. The ecologically-sensitive  Pallikaranai Marsh, one of the last remaining natural wetlands in south India has been deteriorating steadily due to ill – planned urbanization, destructive reclamation and dumping of solid waste.  This project deals  mainly with solid waste management and water problems. In this project there has been and is going to be research into the water and soil quality from the marsh and around to make inferences about the dangers of human intervention in this ecosystem. Our experimental Research also features GIS(Geographical Information System) and Grid  Mapping. Our major findings reveal that the marsh water is polluted, mercury level is seven times more than the permissible limit. The pot culture studies have proved that some plants may grow well when the water samples are rich In organic matter. The results of this study are truly significant  and can  help in the betterment of the locality and also motivate the civic body to start working towards protecting this marsh.

E-waste management is a serious challenge across developed, transition, and developing countries because of the consumer society and the globalization process. E-waste is a fast-growing waste stream which needs more attention of international organizations, governments, and local authorities in order to improve the current waste management practices. The book reveals the pollution side of this waste stream with critical implications on the environment and public health, and also it points out the resource side which must be further developed under the circular economy framework with respect to safety regulations. In this context, complicated patterns at the global scale emerge under legal and illegal e-waste trades. The linkages between developed and developing countries and key issues of e-waste management sector are further examined in the book.

Mercury (Hg), a naturally occurring element with a widespread use in industry, is the most toxic of the heavy metals. Worldwide, many areas are polluted with mercury, presenting a threat to people and the environment, and thus need to be mitigated using proper methods, including bioremediation. Most of the environmental bacteria continuously exposed to mercury present in terrestrial and aquatic environments adopt the heavy metal genotype to survive in the toxic environment. In mer operon-mediated mercury resistance, the cumulative actions of certain functional genes, along with regulator, promoter, and operator, etc. convert the toxic forms of mercury to the relatively less toxic elemental form of mercury. However, certain mercury-accumulating strains of bacteria have also been reported binding mercury in their extracellular polymeric substances along with the cysteine residues of constituent proteins to confer resistance towards this toxic metal. Ongoing research continues aiming at understanding the non-mer operon-mediated mercury resistance mechanism in potent bacterial isolates and their role in bioremediation of mercury in contaminated environmental conditions.

The contamination of groundwater by heavy metal, originating either from natural soil sources or from anthropogenic sources is a matter of utmost concern to the public health. Remediation of contaminated groundwater is of highest priority since billions of people all over the world use it for drinking purpose. In this paper, thirty five approaches for groundwater treatment have been reviewed and classified under three large categories viz chemical, biochemical/biological/biosorption and physico-chemical treatment processes. Comparison tables have been provided at the end of each process for a better understanding of each category. Selection of a suitable technology for contamination remediation at a particular site is one of the most challenging job due to extremely complex soil chemistry and aquifer characteristics and no thumb-rule can be suggested regarding this issue. In the past decade, iron based technologies, microbial remediation, biological sulphate reduction and various adsorbents played versatile and efficient remediation roles. Keeping the sustainability issues and environmental ethics in mind, the technologies encompassing natural chemistry, bioremediation and biosorption are recommended to be adopted in appropriate cases. In many places, two or more techniques can work synergistically for better results. Processes such as chelate extraction and chemical soil washings are advisable only for recovery of valuable metals in highly contaminated industrial sites depending on economical feasibility.► A number of groundwater treatment technologies for heavy metal remediation have been reviewed. ► Iron based techniques, Biological Sulphate Reduction and Permeable Reactive Barriers were most successful in the past decade. ► Biosorption is the emerging field mostly experimented in laboratories. ► More than one techniques can be coupled for site specific problems for better performance.

This mercury release inventory was conducted by BaliFokus in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment of Indonesia, the Indonesian Technical Working Group of mercury and key stakeholders in 2012 in Indonesia.

This inventory was conducted by using data record in 2010, interpolation or extrapolation was also implemented to find the missing data from the same year.

The estimation of mercury release was carried out by the use of the "Toolkit for identification and quantification of mercury releases" made available by the UNEP Chemicals.

"Kellett’s 1935 article “Sir Thomas Browne and
the Disease Called Morgellons” while giving background
and contextual information for Browne’s
observations also reviews other historic accounts
of this condition. The patterns emerging from the
documentations suggest a cause/effect relationship
with mercury. Recent accounts of Morgellons
symptoms are not included as it is uncertain
whether historic accounts are documenting the
same condition as present day Morgellons."

Mining is all over the news in Tanzania. Yet, the focus is predominantly on large-scale mining companies and their tax contributions. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is largely overlooked, and only makes headlines when serious accidents or conflicts with large-scale miners occur. Despite the importance of ASM as livelihood in many developing countries, data on the sector is rarely centrally gathered, stored and analysed. This is also a concern in Tanzania, where many statements on the sector’s overall nature, size and impact resemble back-of-the-envelope estimations. For lack of evidence, initiatives to support and regulate this heterogenous sector often struggle to grasp its complexity. In light of these concerns, IPIS initiated a mobile data collection campaign in northwest Tanzania. 450 small-scale mining and processing sites were surveyed on the nature and scope of operations, working conditions, distribution of wealth, and health, safety and environmental impact. The bulk of these sites mine or process gold. Other important minerals in this area of Tanzania are diamonds, limestone and salt. The report provides a balanced mapping of worst and best case practices in artisanal mining in Tanzania. It addresses challenges of licensing ASM, its problematic safety record, gender and health issues and the alarming use of mercury in gold processing. The report also reveals the important – and often overshadowed – contributions of ASM. This includes considerable employment with decent income, wealth spill-overs to local communities and sizeable corporate social responsibility contributions.

The author proposes the symptoms set often referred to as Morgellons Disease is the result of increasing inorganic
mercury levels beyond the blood/brain barrier (hereafter referred to as the Barrier Theory). While inorganic
mercury does not easily pass beyond the barrier, organic mercury does and may return to an inorganic
state beyond the barrier. If proven valid, our present understanding of mercury will need reevaluation.

Background. Mercury in dental amalgam is a hidden source of global mercury pollution, resulting from the illegal diversion of dental mercury into the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector, to crematoria emissions from the deceased and sewage sludge that is sold to farmers. These significant mercury sources result in air, water, and food contamination that consequently have a negative impact on human health.
Objectives. The aim of the present study was to investigate and report on all of the various pathways mercury in dental amalgam can enter the environment.
Methods. The present study searched the electronic data bases of PubMed and Google Scholar. Peer reviewed journals and references of studies included for full-text review were examined for potentially relevant studies. Articles published between 2000 to 2018 were searched and specifically screened for articles that referenced “Dental Amalgam,” and the following key words in various combinations: “Minamata Convention on Mercury Treaty,” “Sewage Sludge,” “Cremation,” and “Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining.” Data were included on the most populous countries of China, India, the United States, Brazil, and the European Union collectively. We also included data on cremation statistics and current global trends, looking at populations where cremation is a common practice, such as Japan and India.
Discussion. Dental amalgam represents a significant, but understudied area of global mercury pollution that includes cremation, sewage sludge, burial, and small-scale gold mining. Conclusions. Mercury used in products and processes, including dental amalgams, is a global pollutant. Even after the last mercury dental amalgam is placed, its toxic legacy will continue for decades, because of its pervasive bioaccumulation in the environment. Government regulatory agencies should make it mandatory to utilize available technologies, not only in developing countries, but also in developed countries, to reduce mercury contamination. Competing Interests. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Keywords. mercury dental amalgam, Minamata Convention on Mercury Treaty, sewage sludge, cremation, artisanal and small-scale gold mining

The present study highlight the toxicity levels of different heavy metals in aquatic environment of one of the most polluted river of Mumbai-the Mithi River. Although the river has attracted tremendous attention after 26/7 flood in Mumbai, the pollution level of the river has remained neglected issue. The present study was performed for two assessment years 2009-10 and 2010-11 at three different sampling stations namely Airport, CST Kalina and BKC Taximen's Colony along the flow of Mithi River. The results of present investigation indicates that the concentration levels of most of the heavy metals like Al, As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sr and Mn obtained during the assessment year 2010-11 was higher than that obtained during 2009-10 by the factor of 1.4 to 5.7 µg/L. The environmental impact of these toxic heavy metals is discussed. The results point out the need of rational planning of pollution control strategies, so as to keep check on release of toxic heavy metals in the river. It is expected that the present study will be useful for rational planning of pollution control strategies and their prioritisation; to evaluate effectiveness of pollution control measures already is existence and to assess the nature and extent of pollution control needed.

Mercury is a global neurotoxicant especially dangerous in wetlands and newly flooded areas which can be sites of enhanced monomethylmercury, a form of mercury that can be readily biomagnified. The study was conducted in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, a wetland ecosystem characterized by both permanent and seasonal floodplains. Because of the biogeochemical cycling properties of mercury it is expected that wetlands can potentially be sites of elevated levels of monomethylmercury which hold potential threats for both the subsistence fishing communities as well as crocodiles. Samples from individual crocodiles Crocodylus niloticus, fish (Clarius gariepinus, Oreochromis andersoni, Serranochromis angusticeps and juvenile Tilapia sp.), macrophytes (Nymphaea sp.) and bottom channel sediments were collected from the Delta and analysed for Mercury levels. The results showed significant evidence of mercury biomagnification with mean concentrations for fish and crocodiles an order of magnitude higher than macrophytes and sediment. This exploratory study presents evidence for mercury biomagnification in the Okavango ecosystem

The goal of this study was to compare total mercury (Hg) concentrations in fish muscle tissue and assess consumption health risks of fish collected from three north Mississippi lakes (Sardis, Enid, and Grenada) that are extensively used for fishing and recreation. Largemouth bass (LMB; n = 64), channel catfish (CC; n = 72), and white crappie (WC; n = 100), which represent a range of trophic levels, were collected during spring 2013 and 2014. Creel data estimated that anglers harvested approximately 370,000 kg of WC, 27,000 kg of CC, and 15,000 kg of LMB from the lakes annually. Median Hg wet weight concentrations were highest in LMB (443 ng/g), followed by CC (211 ng/g) and WC (192 ng/g). Fish-Hg concentrations were lower than those reported in fish >10 years ago. There were significant differences between lakes consistent across species. Grenada lengthnormalized fish-Hg concentrations were higher than those from Enid and Sardis. Because existing consumption advisories for CC are length based, the lack of relationship between length and Hg concentration indicated that the recommendations may not be sufficiently protective. Further, five different risk assessment paradigms yielded hazard quotient (HQ) values suggesting that existing fish consumption advisories may be insufficient to protect adults and especially children from exposure to Hg.

This study investigates the state of online English-language video content related to Minamata Disease available prior to the 2020 release of the Hollywood film “Minamata” starring popular actor Johnny Depp (in the role of photojournalist W. Eugene Smith). It is intended to serve as a case study of depictions of historic environmental incidents and as a baseline for future comparative research. Utilizing a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach, the study inventoried relevant uploads to YouTube, analyzing in detail the 27 most-viewed videos. Findings include that uploads encompass a wide range of durations, viewcounts, and approaches chosen for portraying the topic. Most had evidently been uploaded by nonspecialists (notably as the sole channel upload in 7 cases). Many were produced through excerpting previously existing source materials – mainly a small number of historic documentary films (most notably a 1971 film by Tsuchimoto Noriaki). Uploads often present lowresolution, deteriorated source content, with varying degrees of alterations and additions having been made, and generally lack explanations of the context or the significance of visual material presented. The most-viewed item was a 2017 upload by popular YouTube channel SciShow, which was highly unusual in that it focused on biochemistry and included no depictions of symptoms in diseased humans or cats. Additional findings and observations are presented, and relevant implications are discussed; future research directions are also identified.

A fundamental principle of the antiinnatia theory of autism and IQ is that the same factors (genetic and environmental) which in extreme high levels cause autism, in more modal levels cause increased IQ. And the factors which generally cause raised IQ, in extreme levels cause autism. The antiinnatia theory further proposed that molecules randomly part-time binding to DNA and thereby reducing gene-expression would cause autism (and in less high levels cause raised IQ). Studies have found that mercury binds dose-dependently to DNA thereby reducing gene-expression, and thus the theory predicts that mercury pollution would cause raised IQ (such as the Flynn effect). This appears contrary to the standard assumption that mercury pollution causes decrements of IQ. In this study, data from the Upper Fremont glacier finds considerable overall correspondence between changes of mercury pollution and changes of IQ. In respect of both mercury and IQ there was roughly-speaking 100 years of increase followed by 15 years of decrease in at least five countries. But mercury pollution is likely to be causing serious harms other than decrements of population averages of IQ.

Mercury, Lead, Cadmium and Nickel are known as non-essential metals, the source, toxicity and impacts on the environment affect humans. Humans produce xenobiotic compounds which are not natural to the environment however these metals are not distinguished this way in an ecosystem. The organic matter and dissolved organic carbon affects the nature of metals as well as abiotic factors such as bioaccumulation, bioavailability and biomagnification which alter the way these chemicals interact with the environment, organisms and humans as well as altering their toxicity. The cause of deploy of these metals are via human activities, there is a need to increase the technical methods of risk management in order to combat the release of these metals.

Mercury (Hg) and other heavy metals, such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn), were analyzed in coal (bituminous), roadside soil, reclaimed mine soil, core zone soil, and reference soil (agriculture soil) along three soil profiles (0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm) in a coal mining area (Jharkhand, India) inhabited by economically marginalized dense population. Higher toxic metal concentrations in coal (0.47 mg Hg/kg, 2.81 mg As/kg, and 13 mg Pb/kg, 2.61 mg Cd/kg) can cause ecological hazard in the area. Roadside soil has the highest Hg (2.32 mg/kg), and core zone soil has the highest Pb (15.7 mg/kg) concentration. Hg concentration in roadside soil indicates high potential ecological risk, while Cd contamination in mining area can be put under moderate ecological risk. Roadside soils shows highest Ecological Risk Index (ERI) value of 339, indicating considerable ecological risk, and Hg alone contributes 64% of ERI value. Higher ERI and Efi (Hg)were due to the deposition of coal dust from mining activities and transportation.

Coal combustion results in air pollution due to emissions of
mercury present in coal. In view of the expected tightening of federal, state, and local regulations on heavy-metal emissions, it is imperative that effective mercury-abatement methods should be developed. Many of the currently pursued technologies for capturing mercury are based on the injection of sorbents into the flue gas, which results in the capture of mercury along with fly ash in electrostatic precipitators and baghouses. The high cost of mercury sorbents, usually activated carbons with a market price of about $0.50/lb, is a serious drawback of this approach. This study addresses mercury adsorption on low-cost, sulfur-rich activated carbons derived from scrap tires. The sulfur added to tire rubber in the process of vulcanization makes the tire-derived sorbents particularly effective in mercury removal due to the high chemical affinity between mercury and sulfur. In this way, the removal of mercury from the combustion flue gas can be combined with the simultaneous utilization of massive amounts of solid waste (scrap tires). The objective of this work was to examine the cost-performance benefits of activated carbons derived from waste tires in the process of mercury removal from simulated combustion flue gas.

Our human society is at present becoming increasingly concerned with issues of pollution and with the impact of this pollution on environment and human health. Among those health- endangering substances are heavy metals, including mercury. The latter, which is notably present in the Amazon environment, accumulates in the aquatic food chain and becomes a hazard to people whose staple diet is fish. In the Bolivian Amazon the populations of fifteen villages on the Río Beni riverbanks are thus exposed to it. However, as significant differences in contamination levels can be observed from one village to the next, the factors causing these discrepancies along the river need to be studied more carefully.
This study shows that contamination differences vary with differences in resource management (such as farming, fishing, hunting, fruit gathering, logging, employment work, trading,...) which result from a socio-spatial system, which is examined on different scales. The pathogenic system of mercury contamination along the Río Beni includes the geographical situation, the types of community organization, the history of these villages, the types of resource management, the social links with external actors, the coherence of the territories in which these villages are located. Consequently, mercury contamination is not inevitable.
This geographical approach helps to identify unsuspected factors of mercury contamination that can serve to lay the foundations for planning and development policies along the Río Beni. With adjustments made to the context and with the capital condition that the research work is resolutely interdisciplinary, a geographical approach of long-term exposure to low doses of pollutants could shed a new light on complex systems leading to the contrasted exposure of populations.

Les luttes menées contre l’entreprise Chisso à Minamata ont marqué de manière durable les rapports entre les courants les plus radicaux du syndicalisme et les mouvements de masse contre la pollution industrielle. Elles ont été le point de rencontre de formes traditionnelles de l’action syndicale avec des mobilisations nouvelles, notamment des actions judiciaires et une production artistique de longue durée. Leur impact dans la société japonaise a été profond et durable.

This paper reports on preliminary research into gold-mining-related mercury contamination in nineteenth-century Victoria. Data drawn from contemporary sources, including Mineral Statistics of Victoria and Mining Surveyors Reports from 1868‒1888, are used to calculate quantities of mercury used by miners to amalgamate gold in stamp batteries and the rates of mercury lost in the process. Some of the mercury discharged from mining and ore milling flowed into nearby waterways and some remained in the waste residue, the tailings near the mills. We estimate that a minimum of 121 tons of mercury were discharged from stamp batteries in this period. Although the figures fluctuate through time and space, they allow a good estimate of how much mercury was leaving the mine workings and entering Victorian creeks and rivers. Better understanding of historic mercury loss can provide the basis for improved mapping of mercury distribution in modern waterways, which can in turn inform the management of catchment systems.