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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

Environmental Geochemistry and Health volume 36, pages 713–734 (2014)Cite this article

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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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Grants CGL2009-13171 and CTM2012-33918 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and PII1I09-0142-4389 from the Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) Regional Government. PH and RO warmly thank all the researchers that kindly decided to contribute with their data on GEM to this paper. Our gratitude goes to all of them.

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Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ingeniería Geológica y Minera, Escuela Universitaria Politécnica de Almadén, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Plaza M. Meca 1, 13400, Almadén, Spain

    Pablo Higueras

  2. Instituto de Geología Aplicada (IGeA), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Plaza M. Meca 1, 13400, Almadén, Spain

    Pablo Higueras, Roberto Oyarzun, José María Esbrí, Alba Martínez-Coronado, Miguel Angel López-Berdonces, Silvia Palacios, Jorge Oyarzún & Hugo Maturana

  3. Departamento de Cristalografía y Mineralogía, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Roberto Oyarzun

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Joze Kotnik & Milena Horvat

  5. Exploraciones Mineras S.A. (EM), Avenida Apoquindo 4775, Providencia, Santiago, Chile

    Willians Llanos

  6. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Unversitá di Florence, Via G. Pira, 4, 50121, Florence, Italy

    Orlando Vaselli

  7. CNR-IGG Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Barbara Nisi

  8. Department of Geology, St. Petersburg State University, 7/9 Universitetskaya nab., St., Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation

    Nikolay Mashyanov & Vladimir Ryzov

  9. OIKON, Institute for Applied Ecology, Avenija Dubrovnik 6-8, 10 020, Zagreb, Croatia

    Zdravko Spiric

  10. Department of Chemistry, Tshwane University of Technology, P.O. Box 56208, Arcadia, Pretoria, 0007, South Africa

    Nikolay Panichev & Rob McCrindle

  11. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550002, China

    Xinbin Feng & Xuewu Fu

  12. Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Tulipán s/n, 28933, Móstoles, Madrid, Spain

    Javier Lillo

  13. Departamento de Explotación y Prospección de Minas, E.T.S. Ingenieros de Minas, Universidad de Oviedo, C/Independencia 13, 33004, Oviedo, Spain

    Jorge Loredo

  14. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Campus de Cota-Cota, La Paz, Bolivia

    María Eugenia García

  15. Departament d’Enginyeria Minera i Recursos Minerals, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Catalunya, Spain

    Pura Alfonso, Karla Villegas & Silvia Palacios

  16. Escuela de Postgrado, Universidad Técnica de Oruro, Oruro, Bolivia

    Karla Villegas

  17. Departamento de Ingeniería de Minas, Universidad de la Serena, La Serena, Chile

    Jorge Oyarzún & Hugo Maturana

  18. Facultad de Agronomía (Maracay), Universidad Central de Venezuela, Maracay, Venezuela

    Felicia Contreras & Melitón Adams

  19. Centro Atomico, Bariloche, Argentina

    Sergio Ribeiro-Guevara

  20. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Luise Felipe Niecenski

  21. Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Volcanologia, Catania, Italy

    Salvatore Giammanco

  22. Prirodno matematicki fakultet, Sarajevo, Bosna and Herzegovina

    Jasna Huremović

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  1. Pablo Higueras
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  2. Roberto Oyarzun
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  3. Joze Kotnik
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  8. Willians Llanos
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  9. Orlando Vaselli
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  11. Nikolay Mashyanov
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  14. Nikolay Panichev
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  16. Xinbin Feng
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  17. Xuewu Fu
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  18. Javier Lillo
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  25. Hugo Maturana
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  26. Felicia Contreras
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  27. Melitón Adams
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  28. Sergio Ribeiro-Guevara
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  29. Luise Felipe Niecenski
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  31. Jasna Huremović
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Correspondence to Pablo Higueras.

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Higueras, P., Oyarzun, R., Kotnik, J. et al. 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. Environ Geochem Health 36, 713–734 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-013-9591-2

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Keywords

  • Gaseous elemental mercury
  • Atmospheric pollution
  • Mining districts
  • Cities
  • Pristine locations
  • Volcanos
  • Hazards
  • Risks