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Mercury in contaminated sites: Identification, characterisation, impacts, and remediation
Environmental Research 125 (2013) 1
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Environmental Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envres
Editorial
Mercury in contaminated sites: Identification, characterisation, impacts, and remediation
Mercury contaminated sites represent an important source of mercury emission into the atmosphere due to evaporation of mercury from contaminated land and waters. Contaminated sites also represent important source for transboundary movement of mercury through hydrological cycles, particularly in the large river catchments scale and contaminated coastal regions. Contaminated site in ecosystem sensitive areas may represent considerable health and ecosystem risk due to direct and indirect exposure to mercury and its compounds. Guidelines on characterization of mercury contaminated sites and BAT and BET for the management and cost effective remediation practices are not available, as yet. It is therefore important to address the above questions in a special issue that will address options for the reduction of the risks from releases of mercury in contaminated sites and the remediation of contaminated sites. In particular, the risks to public and environmental health of mercury compound releases from such sites, environmentally sound mitigation options and associated costs and the contribution of contaminated sites to global releases need to be addressed. The issue is very timely as a new Mercury International legally binding treaty will be adopted in 2013. These issues were addressed by two important events: (i) International Workshop on Mercury in contaminated sites; identification, characterization, impacts and remediation, 10–14 October, 2010, Piran, Slovenia, attended by over 50 internationally well recognized experts, and
0013-9351/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2013.05.003
(ii) 10th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant, Halifax, 24–28 July, 2011, Special session 16, Mercury in Contaminated site; biogeochemistry and human health with 43 oral and poster presentations. Numerous papers presented at both meetings addressed various issues of which selected papers are included in this special issue.
Guest Editors Milena Horvat Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Horvat).
Mineshi Sakamoto National Institute for Minamata Disease, Japan
Laurie Chan University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Jadran Faganeli Marine Biological Station, Slovenia
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Environmental Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envres
Editorial
Mercury in contaminated sites: Identification, characterisation, impacts, and remediation
Mercury contaminated sites represent an important source of mercury emission into the atmosphere due to evaporation of mercury from contaminated land and waters. Contaminated sites also represent important source for transboundary movement of mercury through hydrological cycles, particularly in the large river catchments scale and contaminated coastal regions. Contaminated site in ecosystem sensitive areas may represent considerable health and ecosystem risk due to direct and indirect exposure to mercury and its compounds. Guidelines on characterization of mercury contaminated sites and BAT and BET for the management and cost effective remediation practices are not available, as yet. It is therefore important to address the above questions in a special issue that will address options for the reduction of the risks from releases of mercury in contaminated sites and the remediation of contaminated sites. In particular, the risks to public and environmental health of mercury compound releases from such sites, environmentally sound mitigation options and associated costs and the contribution of contaminated sites to global releases need to be addressed. The issue is very timely as a new Mercury International legally binding treaty will be adopted in 2013. These issues were addressed by two important events: (i) International Workshop on Mercury in contaminated sites; identification, characterization, impacts and remediation, 10–14 October, 2010, Piran, Slovenia, attended by over 50 internationally well recognized experts, and
0013-9351/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2013.05.003
(ii) 10th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant, Halifax, 24–28 July, 2011, Special session 16, Mercury in Contaminated site; biogeochemistry and human health with 43 oral and poster presentations. Numerous papers presented at both meetings addressed various issues of which selected papers are included in this special issue.
Guest Editors Milena Horvat Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Horvat).
Mineshi Sakamoto National Institute for Minamata Disease, Japan
Laurie Chan University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Jadran Faganeli Marine Biological Station, Slovenia