Lars-Eric Heimbürger-Boavida
Chemical oceanographer working for the CNRS at the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, Aix-Marseille-University
Why is mercury a contaminant of particular concern?
Ongoing global change includes warming climate, biodiversity loss and contaminant dispersal in the environment. Mercury exemplifies the paradox of a contaminant we have long recognized yet struggle to control. The 2018 Global Mercury Assessment, mandated by the United Nations Environment Programme, found that anthropogenic sources of mercury emit approximately 3,100 tons per year, and that all people worldwide are exposed to some amount of mercury. And although we know the main anthropogenic sources of mercury (gold mining, coal combustion and cement production), the production of methylmercury – the organic and most toxic form of mercury – by the ecosystem is still a vastly mysterious phenomenon.
