Mercury is a very toxic element that is widely spread in the atmosphere, lithosphere, and surface water. Concentrated mercury poses serious problems to human health, as bioaccumulation of mercury within the brain and kidneys ultimately leads to neurological diseases. To control mercury pollution and reduce mercury damage to human health, sensitive determination of mercury is important. This article summarizes some current sensors for the determination of both abiotic and biotic mercury. A wide array of sensors for monitoring mercury is described, including biosensors and chemical sensors, while piezoelectric and microcantilever sensors are also described. Additionally, newly developed nanomaterials offer great potential for fabricating novel mercury sensors. Some of the functional fluorescent nanosensors for the determination of mercury are covered. Afterwards, the in vivo determination of mercury and the characterization of different forms of mercury are discussed. Finally, the future direction for mercury detection is outlined, suggesting that nanomaterials may provide revolutionary tools in biomedical and environmental monitoring of mercury.

Previous research on rice asserts certain heavy metals, like mercury, in the agricultural soils are incorporated into the rice plant. Mercury is considered to be the most toxic heavy metal. This study aims to investigate mercury levels in rice grown in the United States versus rice imported from Asia. In this study, 29 samples of rice were compared for mercury content (12 from Thailand, 6 from India, 6 from China, compared to 5 control samples from the USA). Samples ranged from 0.18 to 6.01 ng of element / g. Further research is needed to establish standards for mercury toxicity.