Where does my mercury come from?

[rmw]

Noting the claims made in the linked article,

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-0509190244sep19,1,428763.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

I would also note that the lakes and rivers in the part of the country where I live are all under a mercury alert due to high levels of mercury in the fish that are caught and tested. Danged bad thing, too, since fresh game fish is fine eating around these parts.

However, I would also note that I live in a southern state not too far from the hurricane Katrina disaster zone (we have plenty of evacuees everywhere here) but in a part that doesn't have any coal fired power plants up wind of us in the direction of the prevailing winds. I have to pay attention to prevailing wind history for cooling tower siting, so that is a known entity to me professionally speaking.

Therefore, my question is; since we are downwind of no known coal fired power plants in this area, with most of our wind coming all the way from the Gulf of Mexico, where does our mercury problem come from?

rmw

 

[JEB66]

EPRI studies have shown that in the air over the USA, there are something like 3000 tons of mercury. 42 tons comes from US powerplants. The vast majority comes from Aisa and natural sources.

In coal there is lots of stuff. just about every element on the periodic chart can be found in there. So mercury is in coal. But in trace amounts. when they conduct tests on the flue gas for mercury, they measure parts per trillion.

 

[MJCronin]

rmw

Try this thread....

http://www1.umn.edu/eoh/hazards/hazardssite/mercury/mercfate.html

-MJC

 

[rmw]

MJCronin,

Thanks for the link. I read it and it still brings up the question which maybe I should have stated as "Where does my mercury COME from?" with verbal emphasis on the 'come'.

I understand that releases put things in the atmosphere that show up on our land and in our waterways, but the point I was making was that unlike parts of the country that can identify known as well as long time mercury emitters upwind of them, I live in a zone that is relatively free of the type emitters that get the lion's share of the blame for mercury, namely coal fired power plants.

The vast majority of the power plants in my region are and historically have been NG fired (much to our chagrin right about now and lately) and coal fired power plants are either very rare or those that do exist are relative newcomers to the scene, and few of which are in any direction from which the wind comes the most often.

So, it appears to me that the mercury found in our local bodies of water must have gotten their mercury somewhere else, and what could have put enough mercury in them to have us on 'don't eat' fish alerts. Love that fired bass and white perch.

It couldn't have been coal fired power plants. Sorry greenies.

rmw

 

[bimr]

You must have skipped over the part that said:

"Mercury has been used in thousands of productsand industrial processes including chlorine and caustic soda manufacture; use in laboratories; paint manufactured before 1991; electronic uses such lighting (e.g. fluorescent lamps), wiring devices and switches and batteries; thermometers, thermostats, barometers, and other related instruments; and dental supplies (e.g., dental amalgam fillings) and medical equipment."

You also do not say where you live so it is impossible to pinpoint a source.

Common sources would include older chlor alkali plants, laboratories, any industrial plant with mercury containing equipment, paint, electrical equipment manufacturers, dental offices and laboratories, and on and on.

 

[jraef]

Mississippi river perhaps? Remember that in your part of the world, most of the lakes are old meanders of the Old Man. Mercury is present in high levels in cinnabar, a volcanic rock found in places like Montana and Wyoming, both of who's eastern slopes drain into the Mississippi basin. Millenia of sedimentation could account for the deposition of trace amounts in your soil, and when the river scoured out areas and then left them behind as lakes, the deposits were exposed to the water.

Aside from that, I think we can get it from such a wide variety of sources that it comes as no suprise to me. Check this out.

http://www1.umn.edu/eoh/hazards/hazardssite/mercury/mercfate.html

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[EdStainless]

Mike,
As long as you are not a child, or a pregnant or nursing mom, and you don't plan on eating local wild fish more than once a week, don't worry.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Corrosion, every where, all the time.
Manage it or it will manage you.

http://www.trent-tube.com/contact/Tech_Assist.cfm

 

[rmw]

bimr,

I am obviously not going to divulge exactly where I live, but the region has a lot of chlor alkali plants, some are clients, but they are all well to the south and their drainage is towards the Gulf and any prevailing wind plume from them is to the west of me. They would contribute nothing to this area.

We don't have a lot of (non forest related) manufacturing in this area. Now the dentists.... Who knows what was dumped into our rivers before the environmental consciousness era began (which I am 95% in favor of because I don't want to live in a fouled nest nor breathe bad air.)

One thing that does frost me to the max as I serve clients that are being made bear the brunt of the mercury buggar bear is; everytime, and I mean everytime! that I see a kid with the flashing light tennis shoes I recognize that the mercury in those two switches is going to end up in the environment some day.

I postulate that all the kids in America who are wearing thses shoes destined someday to a landfill near me and you (if they make it that far and don't rupture as the garbage truck comprersses the load) can contribute mercury to the atmosphere on a scale easily along with coal combustors.

It is incredulous to me that the greenies can ignore that obvious source of pollution and go after power plants, but lets keep the topic of the thread on sources of mercury. I can just picture some greenie taking his/her kid to day care with the shoes flashing on and off so that they can go to a demonstration against power plants.

Jaef, good thought. I don't live on the river, but I live in an area that is associated with the far reaches of the river delta and where the waterways (rivers and lakes) can easily be part of older portions of the river deposits.

I think the link you gave me was the one given earlier in the thread. If not point out where I missed the difference.

rmw

 

[rmw]

Ed,

I am none of the above, but I have or have had in my home some of each of the above. There are locals that 'live off of the land' so to speak meaning that a large part of their diet is what they can catch and eat, so that fresh (game) fish is on their diet several times a week, so it is real for them and hence a realistic and often repeated warning for our area.

My purpose in this thread is to point out that 'just because I have mercury, doesn't mean that it necessarily came from a coal fired power plant,' and to try to determine realistically where it might have actually come from so that others that have it will know where to look when all the power plants are forced to quit making their contribution.

Further, I have a source that I want to contribute once knowledgable peers have contributed. It would be interesting to see if anyone comes up with it before I present it.

"rmw"

 

[davidbeach]

I've never taken apart a set of flashing shoes, but I doubt they have mercury switches. As fas as I know, they shoes have piezoelectric crystals in them that produce the voltage that drive the circuitry.

 

[rmw]

If that is so, you have just made me feel much better. I haven't taken any apart either, but had been told once that it was mercury switches and just took it as fact. (Largely unlike me) Now, how am I going to explain to some lady at the mall when I turn her kid upside down and rip the shoes off of her child?

rmw

 

[davidbeach]

Try a shoe in the shoe store. If it operates when you thwack it on floor, but doesn't when you shake it, it probably doesn't have switches, but rather is generating its own power from the thwack.

 

[bimr]

Here is a link for the sneakers:

http://sneakers.pair.com/lightup.htm

rmw,

Since you want people to guess where your mercury comes from, I will put my 2 cents in and say it's from your enema tube:


Gastrointestinal Tubes

Use: Gastrointestinal, Blakemore, and cantor tubes are used in the extraction of intestinal obstructions. Gastrointestinal tubes are only found in the medical field. Research suggests that these devices are no longer widely used (Galligan et al., 2002).

Description: Mercurial devices use mercury as a weight to guide the tube into place by gravity.

United States. California Department of Health Services, Environmental Management Branch. Hospital Pollution Prevention (P-2) Strategies. December 2002. p. 9-16.

Identification: The gastrointestinal tube consists of an internal tube to allow the passage of air; and a larger outer tube into which mercury or an alternate substance is poured for weight.

Mercury content: These devices may contain approximately 1000 grams when filled to capacity.

If that's not the case, you might find your source here:

http://www.ec.gc.ca/MERCURY/SM/EN/sm-mcp.cfm?SELECT=SM#MC

 

[rmw]

No, I don't want anyone to guess. I want to know plausable sources apart from one that I suspect, and Jraef has proposed a good one.

I have no way of judging the extent of enema tube contribution to the problem, but will say that is another one that I never considered. Now is it plausable....?

What I do suspect is listed on your second link, and that is flow meters. The area around here was one of the first really big natural gas fields in the USA. In those days, sometime in the first and second quarters of last century, the popular flow meter of the time was the old kidney type with mercury in the bowl as a seal between the legs of the measured fluid, or the ring balance type, again with mercury as the seal between the differential pressure legs.

There were literally thousands upon thousands of gas wells in the area with plenty of this type flow meter. Not being very environmentally aware nor sensitive, I can just picture them pouring the mercury out on the ground when these were changed out, or leaking out onto the ground when the CI housings froze and burst if they had any water in them.

Like wise, this type flow meter was used industrially until well after my career had begun. We get the rare hard freeze (for us) and I can remember being in a paper mill near by one winter day when the mill was in a shut down and the temp dropped well below freezing suddenly. The sound of these CI devices bursting was like shotguns going off. The mercury in them just ran onto the ground, and into the rainwater run off sewer.

Undoubtedly, a lot of it wound up in our waterways, and this has to have happened across the country.

I have long suspected that as a major contributor to our local problem, since the affected waterways drain these regions.

rmw

 

[bimr]

To add to your comments, I have witnessed industrial facilities where the mercury settles to the bottom of sewer pipes from where it will tend to leach out for years.

The other comment that I would add is that mercury analysis is quite advanced. The minimum detection levels for mercury are extremely low such that one is readily capable of detecting minute quantities of mercury.

 

[MJCronin]

rmw,

In my liftime, very few images have haunted me....

One that I will always remember is a stark, black and white photograph of an elderly Japanese mother bathing her son....a victim of mercury poisoning at Minimata

http://www.vs-c.de/vsengine/printvlu/vsc/en/ch/16/uc/vlus/mecury.vlu.html

-MJC

 

[JEB66]

Many natural and human-related (anthropogenic) sources of mercury exist in the environment. In nature, the many ways mercury is released include dust storms, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, and breakdown of the earth's crust by wind and water. Mercury can get into the air from deposits of ore containing mercury or through human activities. The burning of fossil fuels (coal and petroleum products) to produce energy and the incineration of waste items containing mercury, such as certain types of batteries and fluorescent light bulbs releases mercury into the air. Other industrial processes, including mining and smelting, chlorine and alkali processing, cement production, and pulp and paper processing, can release mercury into the environment.

Mercury that contaminates fish and wildlife does so through a complicated biochemical process that begins with the emission of mercury into the atmosphere where it can remain for years before returning to the earth’s surface with rain or as dry fall. Once deposited on land, mercury ends up in runoff, where it enters our lakes, rivers, marshes, and coastal ecosystems. Once in the water, mercury binds to soils and particles and settles to the bottom of water bodies. Microorganisms in the soil and water (primarily sulfate-reducing bacteria) convert mercury into a more toxic form called methyl-mercury.

China in its attempt to become an inductrialized nation is producing a lot of mercury. The volcanoes in the pacific also contribute to atmospheric mercury.

Of the 3000 or so tons in the atmosphere on 48 comes from US power plants.