Farming of carnivorous livestock for pelts has the potential to contaminate nearby ecosystems because animal feed and waste potentially contain persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and metals. Mink farms in Nova Scotia (NS), Canada, provide livestock with feed partially composed of marine fish...

Hg contamination in soil is an increasing global concern. Rhizosphere technology to remediate Hg pollution is direction of future work. Brassica juncea had been widely used for Hg contaminated soil remediation. However, the effects of Hg pollution to rhizobacteria of B. juncea has rarely...

Environmentally benign sustainable origin greener sorbents for removing diverse pollutants in water are in huge demand to reduce pollution worldwide. Furthermore, heterogeneous nature and varied existence of pollutants, metal ions are dissolved in water while oil floats, demands a one-step...

Artisanal and small scale gold mining (ASGM) is a major source of anthropogenic mercury (Hg) to the environment globally, and to West Africa, and these inputs have led to environmental contamination and human exposure. While studies have documented the effects of Hg inputs in West Africa, there...

As of late 2020, the Trump administration had initiated almost one hundred rollbacks of U.S. environmental regulations. A careful assessment of the benefits and costs of rolling back an existing regulation can and should inform such decisions. When assessing the potential rollback of an existing...

The 2013 Minamata Convention on Mercury (Convention) is the world’s newest and most ambitious multilateral environmental agreement (MEA). In addition to making a significant step forward in addressing mercury pollution, the Convention also marks a shift in environmental treaty-making. With...

"Both large-scale and small-scale mining operations are found in the rainforests of South America. But while the large-scale operations largely comply with the legal and regulatory framework provided by the different governments of the Amazon Countries, the small-scale mining operations fall...

Mercury (chemical symbol Hg) is a heavy metal occurring on earth in various forms. It can be converted from one form to another by natural processes, and, once released, actively cycles in the environment for hundreds to thousands of years before being buried in sediment. It is well known for...

This report describes work conducted by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in the contest of GMOS (Global Mercury Observation System). GMOS is an FP VII funded large-scale collaborative project aiming at the establishment of a Global Mercury Observation System including ocean-based,...

This paper gives an overview of economic assessments of the benefits of the control of emissions of mercury compounds, discusses their completeness from a social cost point of view, and discusses the relative magnitudes of the values attached to mercury compounds in different contexts. The...

Certain energy-saving light bulbs, namely compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), are widely available on the market and are offered for saving electricity and, eventually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions particularly from coal-fired power plants. They fulfil the requirements of Commission...

In December 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its long-awaited proposal for regulating mercury emissions from coal-fired utilities, which it later dubbed the quot;Clean Air Mercury Rule.quot; Methylmercury is a potent neurotoxin, leading to irreversible neurological...

The Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), a Directorate-General of the European Commission, operates the International Measurement Evaluation Programme IMEP. It organises interlaboratory comparisons (ILC's) in support to EU policies. This...

We analyze the bipartisan call to ban US exports of commodity mercury. An export ban can generate positive environmental benefits by increasing the scarcity of mercury in those markets where toxic releases occur. We show, however, that a direct mercury purchase and retirement policy can achieve...

The performance of electrocoagulation with iron, aluminum and hybrid Al/Fe sacrificial electrodes for the removal of mercury from pharmaceutical wastewaters was investigated. Operational parameters such as pH, current density, contact time and metal ion concentrations were studied to achieve the...

Mercury pollution poses global human health and environmental risks. Although mercury is naturally present in the environment, human activities, such as coal burning, have increased the amount of mercury cycling among the land, atmosphere, and ocean by a factor of three to five. Emitted to the...

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: California: The Quicksilver State -- 1. Imperialism and California's Quicksilver -- 2. Money and Powerin the California Mercury Landscape -- 3. A Geography of Mercury Mining in California -- 4. Race, Space, and Power at New Almaden -- 5....

This article provided an overview of the costs and benefits of regulating mercury emissions from power plants using IQ gains as a measure of benefits. Our assessment suggests strongly that the benefits are not likely to be worth the costs. This is true both for the command-and-control regulatory...

This chapter critiques environmental agencies' use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in the context of a concrete case study: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) recent regulation of mercury emissions from coal-fired utilities under the "Clean Air Mercury Rule" (CAMR). It identifies...

The study reviews small-scale gold mining in the Philippines and economically assesses mercury pollution and other development problems in the industry. The end purpose is to suggest measures to address the problems and promote better environmental and overall management of small-scale mining....

Mercury-containing products release mercury (Hg) throughout their lifecycles, frequently in ways that are difficult to measure directly. Therefore, there are considerable uncertainties about the magnitude of mercury releases associated with products, about which products and which release...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a new rule regulating mercury emissions from power plants. But is the rule sensible? The best way to answer this question is to tote up the benefits and costs of the rule and compare them. The EPA did not do such an exercise when it...