Latest Methylmercury Stories

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Aquarium have completed a study, funded by the National Aquarium and by the Center for Contaminant Transport Fate and Remediation at The Johns Hopkins University, which compared the mercury levels of captive dolphins and wild dolphins. Captive dolphins are fed a diet of small fish from the North Atlantic, while the wild dolphins eat aquatic creatures that have potentially higher mercury levels. The researchers discovered that the...

Brett Smith for RedOrbit.com If global warming trends are to continue, thermometers across the globe aren’t the only place that mercury levels will be on the rise. The concentration of mercury in the Arctic environment is directly related to forces associated with climate change, according to a new study from Harvard University researchers. Both atmospheric forces and the flow of circumpolar rivers carry the toxic metal north into the Arctic Ocean, but it turns out that the amount...

"Earth Day" Report Shows Real Cost of Dental Mercury Fillings WASHINGTON, April 16, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dental mercury fillings pollute the environment, contaminate fish and are far more costly for taxpayers than the alternative tooth-colored material, according to a new study released today by a broad coalition of health, consumer and environmental groups.[i] "The report's findings confirm that amalgam is not the least expensive when the so-called 'external costs' are...

Humans pump thousands of tons of vapor from the metallic element mercury into the atmosphere each year, and it can remain suspended for long periods before being changed into a form that is easily removed from the atmosphere. New research shows that the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere work to transform elemental mercury into oxidized mercury, which can easily be deposited into aquatic ecosystems and ultimately enter the food chain. "The upper atmosphere is acting as a chemical...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The findings of a new WHO/FAO Report on Benefits and Risks of Seafood Consumption(1) will be presented this week at the World Seafood Congress in Washington, DC. However, advocates believe that the report missed a key opportunity to advise governments about mercury risk from fish consumption. The report was supposed to provide a framework for assessments on risks and benefits of seafood that would assist governments in preparing advice...

LAS VEGAS, July 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "cherry-picked" research to support its biased air emission rules for power plants. The agency also avoided balanced peer review to build its case for stringent new controls on mercury emissions, an important new scientific review has concluded. Not only does EPA base its concerns about health risks on whale blubber, it ignores the skyrocketing, job-killing energy costs that employers and families will have...

Feathers collected from the rare Pacific black-footed albatross over the past 120 years have helped researchers from Harvard University track increases in the neurotoxin methylmercury in the endangered bird, which forages extensively throughout the Pacific, reports AFP. Scientists took the feather samples from two US museum collections -- the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology and the University of Washington Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Studies of the feathers...

A newly sequenced bacterial genome from a team led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) could contain clues as to how microorganisms produce a highly toxic form of mercury.Methylmercury, a potent human neurotoxin, appears in the environment when certain naturally occurring bacteria transform inorganic mercury into its more toxic cousin. Few bacterial species are capable of this conversion, and exactly how the transformation takes place has been a matter of debate...

Although research has shown that eating fish, which is rich in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular diseases, mixed evidence from prior studies has suggested that mercury exposure from fish consumption may be linked to higher risk of cardiovascular diseases. In a new, large-scale study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), researchers found no evidence that higher levels of mercury exposure were...

Mercury contamination, a worldwide environmental problem, has been called "public enemy No. 1" in California's San Francisco Bay.Mercury mining and gold recovery in the mid-1800s to late 1900s, combined with present day oil refineries, chemical manufacturing plants and wastewater treatment plants have contributed enough mercury to threaten wildlife and prompt a fish consumption advisory in the Bay Area. With so many possible sources of contamination, environmental scientists and...