Environmental Impact of Mercury and Forest Fires and Factory Fire

Abstract

Fires can cause serious damage when widespread. This study focuses on two types of fires, forest and factory fires, and investigates how toxic substances released affect the environment. Forest fires, caused by anthropogenic factors such as arson and natural factors such as lightning strikes, are widespread and severely damage ecosystems.Factory fires, caused by malfunctioning electrical equipment, mishandling of chemicals, or carelessness with fire, cause serious damage to the neighborhoods and environment.In addition, fires may release chemical substances present in factories. Mercury release is a common phenomenon in both fires. Fires burn mercury-containing vegetation and organic matter, thereby releasing mercury into the atmosphere. The released mercury is deposited in the soil, rivers, and other water bodies, accumulates in ecosystems (bioaccumulation), and moves up the food chain to higher organisms. Mercury poisoning can adversely affect the nervous and immune systems, causing developmental problems and impaired learning abilities, particularly in fetuses and young children. To reduce the damage caused owing to mercury release, fire prevention, early response, prevention of mercury spillage, and the proper management and storage of mercury are important.Currently, the international community has started working on the proper handling of mercury among nations by concluding the Minamata Convention.

Wildfires’ Effect on Soil Properties and Bacterial Biodiversity of Postpyrogenic Histic Podzols (Middle Taiga, Komi Republic)

“…The behavior of various chemical elements during forest fires depends on a broad complex of factors, which include the fire type (surface, crown, or peat fires), the state of forest combustible materials, the weather conditions, and the distribution nature of the elements in the components of the forest ecosystem, in addition to the geochemical characteristics of the elements and fire intensity as a major factor that determines the impact of fire on the soil's physical, chemical, and biological properties. Substances of the first hazard class, such as mercury, cadmium, arsenic, radioactive cesium, and strontium, actively migrate through the atmosphere during forest fires; lead, plutonium, and some other elements migrate to a lesser extent; and the least dangerous elements are zinc, manganese, and stibium [30]. The elements' emissions during a strong fire can reach up to half of their initial content.…”