Is mercury that was used centuries ago still a problem for modern society?

What is it about?

Mercury was the first toxic substance to be shipped in industrial-scale quantities across oceans as early as the late sixteenth century, from Spain to the Hispanic New World, for the refining of silver ores. In the 19 C a major change took place in the trade, production, and use of mercury. Its global market expanded well beyond its initial link to silver. China became a leading importer of mercury, as well as India and Europe. Because mercury can circulate for hundreds of years in the environment, it is important to know how much of current mercury levels in our environment correspond to the use of mercury prior to 1900. This knowledge is necessary to best design international measures to reduce mercury pollution under the UN’s Minamata Convention. It requires quantifying the link between the well documented historical production data on mercury and the amounts that ultimately found their way to the environment. We have mapped the global source pool of anthropogenic mercury from where two paths branched out. One corresponds to mercury that has been chemically sequestered in its final product, as in vermilion, so that it does not participate in the mercury global geochemical cycle over long periods of time. The other is legacy mercury, which ultimately found its way to our environment, via spills to the ground or emissions to the atmosphere.

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Why is it important?

Mercury is a significant and persistent environmental pollutant, yet the fate of mercury used in many industrial processes prior to 1900 is unclear. The fact is that pre-1900 use of mercury extends world-wide beyond silver refining and gold extraction. A multidisciplinary approach on mercury pollution is needed to reconstitute in numbers the paths of mercury to the environment during the historic smelting of cinnabar, refining of silver ores, extraction of gold, production of vermilion, manufacture of felt, and other end-uses, country by country and on a yearly level.

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