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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