• Industrial discharge is the dominant mer

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Friday, March 18, 2022 22:30:36
    Industrial discharge is the dominant mercury source in Korea's west
    coast

    Date:
    March 18, 2022
    Source:
    Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)
    Summary:
    Researchers have used mercury (Hg) stable isotopes to verify the
    Hg sources in the sediment and fish along the west coast of Korea.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Minamata, a British film released in 2021, is a drama based on the
    true story of an American photographer documenting how the citizens of Minamata, Japan, became ill due to the industrial discharge dumped into
    the river by a Japanese corporation. The Minamata disease, mentioned
    in the movie, is a neuromuscular disorder resulting from mercury
    poisoning. To prevent further human health impacts from mercury pollution,
    the UNEP Minamata Convention on Mercury, a multilateral agreement to
    mitigate anthropogenic mercury emissions and releases, was initiated
    in 2017.


    ==========================================================================
    In contrast to the Minamata disaster, it is often difficult to locate
    precisely the specific sources of mercury leading to the ecosystem and
    human health impacts in the natural environment. At the moment, it is
    widely accepted that mercury found in the water column and sediments of
    global coastal oceans is introduced via riverine transport, unlike the
    case of the Minamata disaster.

    Recently, a POSTECH research team led by Professor Sae Yun Kwon and Ph.D.

    candidate Saebom Jung used mercury (Hg) stable isotopes to quantify the relative importance of various mercury sources in the sediment along the
    entire west coast of Korea. The findings from the study were published
    in Science of the Total Environment.

    The research team has used the end-members of mercury stable isotopes reflecting atmospherically deposited mercury, mercury discharged in the
    form of industrial effluent, and mercury transported via riverine systems
    to calculate the contribution of each source in the sediment. Analyzing
    this dataset showed that the Korean west coast sediments are most affected
    by anthropogenic mercury discharged directly into the coastal zones in
    the form of wastewater from industrial activities. This is also the case
    in many nearshore systems of the East Asian countries, including China.

    There are already monitoring programs funded by the Korean government
    to screen mercury levels in coastal and marine sediments and fisheries products. However, analyses of mercury concentration alone do not provide sufficient information regarding the sources of mercury responsible for
    the contamination. In the case of Korea, many industries are located along
    the nearshore regions rather than along the riverine systems. The west
    coast also shares the Yellow Sea with China -- the world's largest emitter
    of mercury. This calls for further investigation on the contribution of
    various mercury sources into the Yellow Sea from both countries.

    Stable isotopes have widely been used to characterize sources of various
    heavy metals (lead, zinc, chromium, mercury) in globally recognized contaminated sites such as the Minamata Bay. The utility is spreading
    quickly to the field of environmental forensics to screen sources at
    sites where the issues of contamination is just beginning to receive
    public attention. Stable isotopes are also applied to understand natural processes in the environment, which enhance the exposure of contaminants
    to wildlife and humans. The unique properties of the stable isotopes, indicating the same element with different numbers of neutrons depending
    on their origin, enable them to be used to characterize the source of
    the pollutants.

    The results of this study are noteworthy for the nearshore management
    in East Asian countries. The conflicting results from the conventional concentration- based and modeling studies, which have attributed the
    riverine transport as the major mercury source to the global coastal
    oceans, also merit further investigation and utility of mercury stable isotopes.

    "The information on the mercury sources along the Korean sediments and
    fish should be directed to formulating targeted management strategies
    and policies to mitigate industrial mercury releases. This should be
    an important objective since Korea is one of the signatory countries
    under the Minamata Convention," remarked Professor Sae Yun Kwon who led
    the study.

    She added, "The regulation of industrial mercury releases to coastal
    oceans would also have a direct effect on improving the marine environment
    and safe consumption of seafood." This study was supported by the
    National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT).


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Pohang_University_of_Science_&_Technology_(POSTECH).

    Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Saebom Jung, Sae Yun Kwon, Mi-Ling Li, Runsheng Yin, Jaeseon Park.

    Elucidating sources of mercury in the west coast of
    Korea and the Chinese marginal seas using mercury stable
    isotopes. Science of The Total Environment, 2022; 814: 152598 DOI:
    10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152598 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220318092131.htm

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