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Health and Environmental Effects from Mercury Emissions

Mercury is a persistent, bioaccumulative toxic metal that exists as a trace metal in the earth’s crust.  Mercury is released to the environment from airborne emissions, direct discharges to surface water and soil, accidental spills, and natural activities.  Although all releases of mercury are of concern, air emissions play a significant role in the transport and dispersion of mercury.

Once mobilized in the environment, mercury can be transported long distances and undergo several chemical transformations while cycling through land, water, and air.  Methylmercury, one particularly toxic form of mercury, bioaccumulates in fish and can be ingested by fish-eating animals and humans.  Exposure to methylmercury can impair the human nervous system, and kidney function, and can cause tingling in the limbs; exposure to methylmercury in utero can cause neonatal brain damage, and cause developmental effects in children.

Levels of mercury in the environment are high across Massachusetts and the northeast.  Over 60% of Massachusetts lakes and ponds have fish that are unsafe for pregnant women and children to eat because of mercury.  The Massachusetts Department of Public Health recommends that pregnant and nursing women, women who may become pregnant and children under 12 avoid eating any native freshwater fish caught in Massachusetts as well as several species of saltwater fish.  Data from a national exposure assessment by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicate that about 8% of women of childbearing age are being exposed to mercury at a level above that recommended by USEPA and the National Academy of Science (equating to an impact on over 350,000 newborn babies each year).  Almost 40% of the lakes and ponds tested in Massachusetts have fish with levels of mercury that are unsafe for all humans.  All Northeast states are affected.

Evidence of elevated rates of mercury deposition and of high levels of mercury contamination in freshwater fish taken from waterbodies throughout Massachusetts, the US and Canada has prompted widespread concern about health and environmental impacts.  In addition, several studies in Maine and Russia have shown that acidification of surface waters increases the bioavailability of some metals, like mercury, to fish.   In response, many states nationwide, including all the Northeastern states and three eastern Canadian provinces, have issued fish consumption advisories recommending limits on the consumption of contaminated fish.  Over the past several years, Massachusetts has issued fish consumption advisories for over 100 waterbodies because of the mercury levels measured in fish tissue.

Mercury is used in a number of common consumer products, such as thermometers, fluorescent lights, thermostats, and certain batteries.  In addition, mercury is present as a trace element in oil and coal, and is emitted during combustion of these fuels.  The primary anthropogenic sources of mercury emissions worldwide include coal combustion, mining and smelting, industrial processes, and municipal waste incineration.   A 1996 inventory of Massachusetts facilities suggests that coal and oil-fired generators were responsible for approximately 30% of the mercury emissions in the state at that time.

Mercury releases, because of its toxicity and its being a trace metal in
 fuels, are measured in pounds per year, as compared to other pollutants (e.g., SO2, NOx) that are measured in tons per year.  The following simplified examples provide some perspective on this issue:

• Massachusetts’ Department of Public Health recommends that pregnant women and children not eat fish containing 0.5 ppm of mercury; these fish contain less than 1/100,000 of an ounce of mercury per pound.
• Research on mercury inputs to lakes and ponds in Minnesota indicate that fish can be contaminated to unsafe levels by the annual deposition of only about 1 gram of mercury (a fraction of an ounce or about the amount in a fever thermometer) per 20 acres . Air deposition rates of mercury in New England are consistent with those reported for Minnesota and have similarly resulted in fish consumption advisories across the region.

Summarizing the available data on mercury toxicity in wildlife, EPA has indicated that sublethal effects can occur at doses as low as 0.25 micrograms per gram of bodyweight per day, or a dietary concentration of 1.1 ppm, and that death can occur in some species at doses ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 micrograms per gram of bodyweight, or at a dietary concentration from 1 to 5 ppm.  Reductions in anthropogenic mercury emissions would benefit the Northeast region by decreasing the available mercury for methylation and uptake in local fish populations.  Over time, reduction in emissions will result in lower methylmercury levels in fish and lower exposure rates to people and animals that consume freshwater fish.

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