IV.
Mercury Pollution
(1) When most people think or talk about dangers to our environment, they focus on general
terms like “pollution,” “smog,” and “acidrain.” Also, they often focus on the impact of
supposedly man-made chemicals and compounds. But to truly understand the risks to our
environment, it’s helpful to focus on the danger of specific chemical, which are often
otherwise naturally-occurring elements that have been spread harmfully by man. One of the
largest threats to our environment is mercury: Hg on the periodic table of elements. (2) At
room temperature, mercury, a metal, exists as a silvery-white liquid. However, it vaporizes
readily when heat is applied, and can stay suspended in the air for more than a year. The
largest sources of mercury pollution in the United States are coal-fired power plants.
Emissions from these plants account for 70 percent of the mercury that enters our oceans,
lakes, and streams. Air currents carry these particles far from the source and are capable of
polluting bodies of water thousands of miles away. (3) Mercury particles released into the air
fall into these waterways and quickly enter aquatic food chains. First, mercury attaches to
sediments (fragments of organic and inorganic material that settle to the bottom of the body
of water). Second, bacteria change the mercury into methyl mercury, a highly toxic
substance. Third, phytoplanktons feed on the organic matter in sediments and absorb the
methyl mercury. Fourth, fish then eat the mercury contaminated phytoplankton; the larger
the fish and the longer it lives, the more concentrated the methyl mercury in its system
becomes. The mercury can then move higher up the food chain when humans eat fish that
have absorbed high amounts of mercury. (4) Studies indicate that mercury levels in U.S.
waterways have increased anywhere from 100 to 400 percent over the course of the last
century, and no river, lake, or ocean seems immune. It is important to note that, thanks to
the U.S. Clean Air Act and efforts by industry to curb unnecessary discharges as well as
better sewage treatment methods, the levels have been in slow decline since the 1970s.
however, this minor decline is relatively miniscule in comparison to the major increase in the
years prior. (5) If you’ve ever experienced that “rotten egg” smell during low tide at a coastal
area, you’ve seen (or smelled) methylation in action. Methylation is the conversion of
mercury in sediments to methyl mercury by sulphatereducing bacteria. While this
methylation is a natural process, the industrial discharge of mercury has greatly accelerated
the process beyond what the ecosystem is able to absorb safely. This methylation not only
impacts aquatic species, but also harms humans and other land-based wildlife. (6) Most of
the fish and shellfish that humans eat live solely in coastal areas or frequent coastal areas
and feed on the fish that live there. At the same time, most methylation takes place in
coastal areas. Therefore, methyl mercury moves up the food chain from plankton to lobster,
bluefish, winter flounder, tuna, and many other species eaten extensively by man. The
methyl mercury binds to the protein in fish, residing in the muscle of the fish. This muscle is
exactly what we eat, the fillet. (7) The short-term impact of digestion of toxic methyl mercury
is obviously a concern. • More troubling, however, is its long-term impact on species up and
down the food chain. • In Wisconsin, scientists have studied the decline of chick production
in loons (aquatic birds). • They have made a positive link to mercury concentration in eggs
which exceeds the concentration found to be toxic in laboratory studies. • Through that
example, the lasting impact of methyl mercury far from the source of the pollution can be
seen. (8) One of the great wonders of the Earth is the interconnectivity of all the world’s
ecosystems. This interconnectivity gives us the range and diversity of wildlife that we all
enjoy and it also allowed life on the planet to endure through cataclysmic events, such as
asteroid impacts and the ice ages. However, it is this very interconnectivity that makes our
ecosystems so vulnerable. Mercury pollution is unfortunately one of many examples of an
environmental impact far removed from the source of the pollution; understanding the
process by which the pollution spreads up the food chain is one of many steps to ameliorate
the impact of such pollution.
