Latest Methylmercury Stories

The Great Salt Lake is laden with toxic mercury and scientists cannot explain why.Researchers are now investigating where the poison is coming from and how much danger it poses to the millions of birds that feed on the Great Salt Lake."We've got a problem, but we don't know how big it is," said Chris Cline, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. Cline has been collecting cinnamon teal duck eggs from nests along the shore of the lake and has been analyzing them in the lab.In...

By Mark Prado, The Marin Independent Journal, Novato, Calif. Jul. 15--Areas of West Marin laden with toxic mercury including Soulajule Reservoir and Walker Creek need to be cleaned up under a plan approved by a state agency on Tuesday. The poisonous legacy of West Marin's mercury mines is contaminating fisheries and impairing water quality, according to state water regulators. On Tuesday the state's Water Resources Control Board adopted a plan to curb mercury contamination by having the...

Mercury is a large component of dental fillings, but it is not believed to pose immediate health risks in that form. When exposed to sulfate-reducing bacteria, however, mercury undergoes a chemical change and becomes methylated, making it a potent, ingestible neurotoxin.While the major source of neurotoxic mercury comes from coal-fired electric power plants, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and at Urbana-Champaign say mercury entering drain water from dental clinics and...

A long-term study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the BioDiversity Research Institute, and other organizations has found and confirmed that environmental mercury"”much of which comes from human-generated emissions"”is impacting both the health and reproductive success of common loons in the Northeast. The results of the 18-year study on loons"”a species symbolic of northern lakes and wilderness"”appear in the most recent edition of Ecotoxicology."This study demonstrates how top...

MADISON -The health risks posed by mercury contaminated fish is sufficient to warrant issuing a worldwide general warning to the public "” especially children and women of childbearing age-to be careful about how much and which fish they eat. That is one of the key findings comprising "The Madison Declaration on Mercury Pollution" published today in a special issue of the international science journal Ambio. Developed at the Eighth International Conference on Mercury as a Global...

STRASBOURG, France (AP) - The European Parliament on Tuesday backed plans to phase out the use of mercury in non-electrical measuring devices, with the exception of barometers and antique instruments.Medical devices such as thermometers and manometers would be covered by the legislation, which now goes to EU member states for assessment.The draft directive follows a call by the EU executive Commission to ban exports of mercury from 2011 as part of efforts to cut down the global supply of the...

By Andrew Stern CHICAGO (Reuters) - Mercury built into older-model U.S. vehicles will be removed before they are melted down for scrap under an agreement announced on Friday, putting a small dent in a worsening global environmental threat. Droplets of airborne mercury emitted by coal-burning plants, waste incinerators and from small-stakes gold mining operations circle the Earth for up to a year before descending in rainfall, contaminating waterways and converting to a toxic form that...

Scientists for years have been at a loss to explain unexpectedly high levels of mercury in fish swimming the rivers and streams of areas like eastern Oregon, far away from industrial sources of mercury pollution such as coal-fired power plants. New University of Washington research suggests mercury can be carried long distances in the atmosphere, combining with other airborne chemicals as it travels. These compounds are much more water-soluble and therefore are more easily removed from the...

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Levels of lead have dropped dramatically, exposure to second-hand smoke is down and most women are not burdened by unsafe levels of mercury, according to the latest U.S. government survey on chemical exposures. The third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has details on 148 different chemicals found in the blood and urine of...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Federal scientists studying the Great Salt Lake have found some of the highest levels of mercury ever measured anywhere - prompting concern about some of the migratory birds that feed on the lake's brine shrimp. U.S. Geological Survey and Fish and Wildlife Service researchers were initially gathering information on selenium in the lake, but decided also to test the samples for mercury. Concentrations of methylmercury - the element's most poisonous form - exceeded 25...