It can also contaminate vegetation and become ingested by animals, primarily marine-dwelling ones.

This means that it is found in air, water and soil. After being emitted into the atmosphere, it can fall back to the land or the ocean in the form of precipitation, dust or as a result of gravity. Where is mercury found?Īs a naturally occurring substance which can freely change its form, mercury has been cycling through our biosphere for millennia. Waste incinerators, smelting furnaces and other industrial facilities produce mercury emissions, too. Coal is the main offender in this respect, though oil, gas, wood and biomass all contribute to the problem, as well. Mercury is also produced when fuel sources are combusted and their mercury content is released into the atmosphere. The chief anthropogenic source of mercury emissions is the mining industry, with the pursuit of precious metals and ores like gold particularly damaging in environmental terms. In fact, scientists believe that current concentrations of atmospheric mercury are three times greater than they were prior to the Industrial Revolution. However, a substantial amount of the mercury in our atmosphere today was emitted from manmade sources. Mercury is produced via a variety of natural processes, including volcanic emissions, forest fires, erosion of rocks containing the element and several other phenomena. While there are many different organic mercury compounds in our environment, methylmercury is by far the most widespread – and the worst from a human perspective.

Often considered the most dangerous type of mercury, organic mercury compounds are formed when Hg reacts with carbon. This generally takes the form of a white crystalline powder. After reacting with the other element, the Hg is converted into an inorganic mercury compound, like mercuric chloride, mercuric oxide or mercuric sulphide. This type of mercury is formed when Hg is combined with other elements (except for carbon), such as chlorine, oxygen or sulphur. Defined as Hg in scientific terms, elemental mercury is the metal in its purest form and is normally a liquid, but can change its physical state. This is probably the type of mercury which most people think of when they hear the word, since it has been used in thermometers, barometers and other meteorological instrumentation for decades. Generally speaking, there are three different types of mercury, which are comprised of the following: However, this doesn’t mean that it cannot become converted into a solid or a gas, nor that it has just a single form. Mercury is unique in that it’s the only heavy metal to inhabit a liquid form in its natural state.

This article will take a closer look at the element in more detail, from its various forms and methods of exposure to the health ramifications and monitoring methods used to assess it. As a result, it has now become a global requirement for companies and individuals handling mercury to implement proper monitoring mechanisms to ensure it remains at safe levels. Nonetheless, it has been discovered that exposure to high levels of mercury over an alarmingly short period – as well as prolonged exposure to low levels of the element – can have disastrous repercussions for the human body, the animal kingdom and the environment we inhabit. All of these attributes have made it a desirable commodity through the years. It has the ability to dissolve other metals and imbue them with certain properties through amalgamation, while it also has among the lowest freezing and boiling points of any heavy metal. This meant that it was a common ingredient in a wide variety of consumer products, medicinal treatments and industrial processes. Of course, the toxicity of the substance and the health and environmental risks that high concentrations of it bring were not common knowledge for many centuries. Not only is it the only metal to take liquid form in its natural state, but it’s also one of the most toxic heavy metals on Earth. A naturally occurring element in our environment, mercury is unique in a number of different ways.

Mercury poisoning test