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Toxics
Special Issues
Monitoring and Assessment of Mercury Pollution
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Monitoring and Assessment of Mercury Pollution

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Ecotoxicology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 November 2024) | Viewed by 4748

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Pilario Costagliola

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Guest Editor
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence, 50121 Florence, Italy
Interests: heavy metal pollution; arsenic; mercury; ore deposits; stream sediment quality; water chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Francesco Ciani

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Guest Editor
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence, 50121 Florence, Italy
Interests: mercury; environmental biology; atmospheric pollution
Dr. Alessia Nannoni

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Guest Editor
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florence, 50121 Florence, Italy
Interests: mercury; water pollution; hydrology; geomorphology; soil pollution

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

After more than forty years since the first outbreak of mercury (Hg) poisoning, the issue still raises worldwide debate. Despite the increasing efforts to reduce Hg pollution, human activity still produces a massive amount of Hg: only in 2018, anthropogenic emission exceeded 2 million kg of Hg, representing 30% of the total Hg entering the atmosphere yearly.

Mercury is one of the most naturally occurring toxic substances in the Earth’s crust and it exists in the environment in several forms, each of them with specific characteristics, properties, and environmental effects. The assessment of mercury pollution involves evaluating various sources, including industrial emissions, artisanal mining, and natural processes, which release both elemental and organic forms of mercury into the environment. Effective monitoring strategies involve ground-based measurements and remote sensing technologies to track atmospheric, aquatic, and soil mercury levels. Monitoring Hg pollution is fundamental to understanding its dispersion, transformation, and bioaccumulation throughout terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The occurrence of mercury in the environment poses risks to human populations, particularly through the consumption of contaminated fish and water, with neurological and developmental health impacts. The clinical effects of human exposure are numerous and differ based on the Hg forms. This scenario is indeed rapidly transforming due to the effects of climate change, contributing to drastic changes in the environmental conditions affecting Hg dispersion in the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously update of our general knowledge on Hg geochemistry.

The detection and the quantification of the different Hg species is thus of primary importance to predict the fate of this pollutant and its potential effects on the environment and humans.

In this Special Issue, we kindly invite you to contribute papers dealing with the issue of Hg pollution, its monitoring and quantification. The wide range of this topic could include both research and review papers for possible publication in this issue.

Dr. Pilario Costagliola
Dr. Francesco Ciani
Dr. Alessia Nannoni
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mercury
  • risk assessment
  • environmental contamination
  • mercury speciation and quantification
  • environmental monitoring
  • assessment methods

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 6973 KiB  
Article
Active Moss Biomonitoring of Mercury in the Mine-Polluted Area of Abbadia San Salvatore (Mt. Amiata, Central Italy)
by Federica Meloni, Sergio Calabrese, Orlando Vaselli, Francesco Capecchiacci, Francesco Ciani, Lorenzo Brusca, Sergio Bellomo, Walter D’Alessandro, Kyriaki Daskalopoulou, Stefania Venturi, Barbara Nisi, Daniele Rappuoli, Franco Tassi and Jacopo Cabassi
Toxics 2025, 13(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics13010002 - 24 Dec 2024
Viewed by 443
Abstract
Active biomonitoring of mercury (Hg) using non-indigenous moss bags was performed for the first time within and around the former Hg mining area of Abbadia San Salvatore (Mt. Amiata, central Italy). The purpose was to discern the Hg spatial distribution, identify the most [...] Read more.
Active biomonitoring of mercury (Hg) using non-indigenous moss bags was performed for the first time within and around the former Hg mining area of Abbadia San Salvatore (Mt. Amiata, central Italy). The purpose was to discern the Hg spatial distribution, identify the most polluted areas, and evaluate the impacts of dry and wet deposition on mosses. The exposed moss bags consisted of a mixture of Sphagnum fuscum and Sphagnum tenellum from an external uncontaminated area. In each site, two different types of moss bags, one uncovered (to account for the wet + dry deposition) and one covered (to evaluate the dry deposition), were exposed. The behavior of arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) in the mosses was investigated to assess the potential relationship with Hg. GEM (Gaseous Elemental Mercury) concentrations were also measured at the same sites where the mosses were exposed, although only as a reference in the initial stages of biomonitoring. The results revealed that the main Hg emissions sources were associated with the former mining area of Abbadia San Salvatore, in agreement with the measured GEM concentrations, while arsenic and antimony were related to soil enriched in As-Sb waste material. The three elements registered higher concentrations in uncovered mosses with respect to the covered ones, i.e., wet deposition was the key factor for their accumulation on the uncovered mosses, while dry deposition was especially important for the covered samples in the mining area. Hg was accumulated in the mosses via GEM adsorption, uptake of particulate Hg, and precipitation via raindrops/snowfall, with almost no loss and without post-deposition volatilization. The results testified that the chosen biomonitoring technique was an extremely useful tool for understanding Hg transport and fate in a contaminated area. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Monitoring and Assessment of Mercury Pollution)
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11 pages, 2067 KiB  
Article
Mercury in Fur of Bats in Middle Taiga of the European Part of Russia at Low Anthropogenic Exposure
by Elena Ivanova, Liubov Eltsova, Oleg Shapkin, Yuri Udodenko, Olga Rumiantseva, Yana Pevcova, Alex Viskontene and Viktor Komov
Toxics 2024, 12(12), 863; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12120863 - 28 Nov 2024
Viewed by 526
Abstract
Mercury is considered to be one of the chemical elements posing the greatest threats to the health of most animals and can be transferred from aquatic ecosystems to terrestrial food webs. Many bat species forage above water, and their food sources include aquatic [...] Read more.
Mercury is considered to be one of the chemical elements posing the greatest threats to the health of most animals and can be transferred from aquatic ecosystems to terrestrial food webs. Many bat species forage above water, and their food sources include aquatic and amphibious organisms. Bats are very sensitive to the slightest changes in the environment. The objective was to determine the accumulation of mercury in the fur of insectivorous bats in summer habitats in an area with limited anthropogenic activity in the conditions of the middle taiga in the northwest European part of the Russian Federation. In the studied species, the average values of the metal’s content (μg/g) increased in the following order: Myotis daubentonii (3.294 ± 0.934), Myotis dasycneme (3.909 ± 0.543), Vespertilio murinus (8.011 ± 1.136), Pipistrellus nathusii (8.366 ± 0.546), and Nyctalus noctula (8.408 ± 1.386). The key factor regarding the mercury accumulation in each bat species is the foraging strategy. The mercury content in the fur of adult bats was higher than in subadults. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Monitoring and Assessment of Mercury Pollution)
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14 pages, 21149 KiB  
Article
The Legacy of Hg Contamination in a Past Mining Area (Tuscany, Italy): Hg Speciation and Health Risk Assessment
by Simone Arrighi, Fabrizio Franceschini, Riccardo Petrini, Silvia Fornasaro and Lisa Ghezzi
Toxics 2024, 12(6), 436; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12060436 - 16 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1873
Abstract
The mercury cell manufacturing process, which has been extensively used in chlor-alkali plants to produce chlorine and caustic soda by electrolysis, represents a major source of Hg environmental pollution. At Saline di Volterra (Tuscany, Italy), solution mining by pumping water into halite deposits [...] Read more.
The mercury cell manufacturing process, which has been extensively used in chlor-alkali plants to produce chlorine and caustic soda by electrolysis, represents a major source of Hg environmental pollution. At Saline di Volterra (Tuscany, Italy), solution mining by pumping water into halite deposits was applied to produce brines for a mercury-cell chlor-alkali plant. The Hg-contaminated, exhausted brines were pumped back at depth into the rock salt field in order to renew the available resources. Activities ceased in 1994, following the leakage dispersion of highly contaminated Hg(0)-bearing brines into the environment. The mercury content in the soil, measured during a survey conducted in 2000, reached 334 mg/kg, highlighting diffuse contamination in the floodplain. By 2009, the Hg concentration had generally decreased and was mostly confined to the topsoil layer. In order to evaluate the present Hg soil pollution, a geochemical survey was carried out in 2023, almost thirty years after the contamination event. The obtained data indicated the occurrence of legacy Hg, which reached 25.5 mg/kg in some soil samples. Speciation analysis for the most contaminated soil revealed that Hg(0) represented about 17.3% of the total Hg and that water-soluble and organic Hg fractions were negligible. These results suggest that the originally released metallic mercury has volatilized and likely oxidized, becoming practically immobile in the soil. A risk assessment, performed by applying Hg speciation analysis, indicated that the mercury in the soil does not carry a risk of non-cancerous effects for different exposure routes in case of subsequent use of the site and that the formerly contaminated area can now be converted into a leisure area. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Monitoring and Assessment of Mercury Pollution)
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11 pages, 1187 KiB  
Article
Mercury Dynamics in the Sea of Azov: Insights from a Mass Balance Model
by Christoph Gade, Rebecca von Hellfeld, Lenka Mbadugha and Graeme Paton
Toxics 2024, 12(6), 417; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12060417 - 7 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1231
Abstract
The Sea of Azov, an inland shelf sea bounding Ukraine and Russia, experiences the effects of ongoing and legacy pollution. One of the main contaminants of concern is the heavy metal mercury (Hg), which is emitted from the regional coal industry, former Hg [...] Read more.
The Sea of Azov, an inland shelf sea bounding Ukraine and Russia, experiences the effects of ongoing and legacy pollution. One of the main contaminants of concern is the heavy metal mercury (Hg), which is emitted from the regional coal industry, former Hg refineries, and the historic use of mercury-containing pesticides. The aquatic biome acts both as a major sink and source in this cycle, thus meriting an examination of its environmental fate. This study collated existing Hg data for the SoA and the adjacent region to estimate current Hg influxes and cycling in the ecosystem. The mercury-specific model “Hg Environmental Ratios Multimedia Ecosystem Sources” (HERMES), originally developed for Canadian freshwater lakes, was used to estimate anthropogenic emissions to the sea and regional atmospheric Hg concentrations. The computed water and sediment concentrations (6.8 ng/L and 55.7 ng/g dw, respectively) approximate the reported literature values. The ongoing military conflict will increase environmental pollution in the region, thus further intensifying the existing (legacy) anthropogenic pressures. The results of this study provide a first insight into the environmental Hg cycle of the Sea of Azov ecosystem and underline the need for further emission control and remediation efforts to safeguard environmental quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Monitoring and Assessment of Mercury Pollution)
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