Atmospheric mercury in the Great Smoky Mountains compared to regional and global levels

Environmental mercury in China: A review

“…The results showed similar levels of atmospheric Hg (1.9-5.7 ng m À3 ) among the three areas [29][30][31]. The levels were lower than the findings in urban areas but were significantly elevated compared with other remote areas in Europe and North America (usually lower than 2.0 ng m À3 ) [32][33][34]. The values were also higher than the background levels in China (0.6-1.7 ng m À3 ) [27] and the Northern Hemisphere (1.5-1.7 ng m À3 ) [28], indicating the extensive impact of large Hg emissions in China and the long-range transport of Hg.…”

Correlation Analysis, Transportation Mode of Atmospheric Mercury and Criteria Air Pollutants, with Meteorological Parameters at Two Remote Sites of Mountain and Offshore Island in Asia

“…9, it is clearly observed that there was a good correlation between CO and Hg at low atmospheric mercury concentrations. In this study, the atmospheric mercury monitored at the two remote sites was total gaseous mercury (TGM), including the major portion (> 98%) of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) and the minor portion (≤ 2%) of gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) (Poissant et al, 2005;Lindberg et al, 2007;Valente et al, 2007;Bittrich et al, 2011). The partitions of speciated mercury are quite similar elsewhere in the atmosphere all over the world.…”

Mercury risk from fluorescent lamps in China: Current status and future perspective

“…The average mercury concentrations in the air decreased from >35 to 1-3 μg/m 3 after switching to Ti 3 Hg alloy in mercury dosing after 1984. Nonetheless, these levels were still three orders of magnitude higher than the global mercury background (1.5-2.0 ng/ m 3 ) (Valente et al, 2007). Similarly, the average urine mercury levels of the workers were consistently above 50 μg/L during the 1980-1983 period, but decreased to 2-3 μg/L in 1985 and 1986 after the dosing technology upgrade (Wang, 1993).…”

“…Therefore, excessive mercury emissions from power plants can increase regional and even global mercury levels in the air. The levels of gaseous mercury in China are much higher than the global background (1.5-2.0 ng/ m 3 ) (Valente et al, 2007), and those in urban air in North America and Europe (2.0-4.6 ng/m 3 ) (Li et al, 2008;Liu et al, 2010;Manolopoulos et al, 2007), primarily due to the widespread coal burning in China (Mao et al, 2010). Therefore, reduction of mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants can help to reduce the atmospheric mercury pollution and the health risk of the general population.…”