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Adsorption of Mercuric Chloride Vapours from Incinerator Flue Gases on Calcium Hydroxide Particles
Published in Maria da Graça Carvalho, Woodrow A. Fiveland, F. C. Lockwood, Christos Papadopoulos, Combustion Technologies for a Clean Environment, 2021
A. Lancia, D. Musmarra, F. Pepe, G. Volpicelli
The high toxicity of mercury compounds constitutes a severe environmental problem; therefore an improvement in developing technologies capable of reducing the mercuric chloride vapour emissions into the atmosphere is necessary.
Metals, Their Biological Functions and Harmful Impacts
Published in Karlheinz Spitz, John Trudinger, Mining and the Environment, 2019
Karlheinz Spitz, John Trudinger
Mercury and its compounds are toxic to humans, with toxicity varying among the different species (Case 13.1). Methyl mercury poses the most serious threat, and can affect various organs including the brain (NRC 2000). As with lead, human embryos receive mercury across the placenta, potentially causing persistent damage to a child’s mental development. Mercury toxicity first made headlines following the release of mercuric chloride (a catalyst in the production of plastics) into the bays of Minemata and Niigata, Japan in 1953 and 1960 (UNEP 2002). The source of the ‘Minamata disease’ (later found to be methyl-mercury poisoning) was the discharge of untreated effluent containing methyl mercury chloride from a polyvinyl chloride plastic plant. Once in the bay’s sediments, the mercury was readily absorbed by marine species, which resulted in the contamination of the entire ecosystem. Many of the local residents consumed fish and seafood from the mercury-contaminated waters as a staple part of their diet. Thirty-nine years later, 2,252 patients had been officially diagnosed with Minamata disease, and over 1,000 had died (www.ec.gc.ca/MERCURY/EH/EN/ehhc.cfm). Since Minemata, mercury has become an ‘angst word’, although people tend to associate it with mine wastes because of its earlier use in gold extraction. Mercury does bio-magnify in the food chain with the uppermost trophic level of marine organisms (sharks, barracuda, etc.) often containing levels of mercury considered too high for safe human consumption.
Occurrence and Importance of Heavy Metal Contamination
Published in Jiaping Paul Chen, Decontamination of Heavy Metals, 2012
Mercury poisoning can result from exposure to soluble forms (such as mercuric chloride or methylmercury), inhalation of mercury vapor, or eating fish contaminated with mercury. Cinnabar (mercuric sulfide) is highly toxic through ingestion or inhalation of the dust.
Neurotoxicity of β-HgS differs from environmental mercury pollutants (MeHgCl and HgCl2) in Neuro-2a cell
Published in International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 2021
Zhenghua Xia, Hongtao Bi, Cen Li, Lujing Geng, Muhammad Usman, Yuzhi Du, Lixin Wei
Mercury is a toxic heavy metal, especially methyl mercury (MeHg) and mercuric chloride (HgCl2) are known to be harmful to the environment and health. Mercury has different chemical forms including elemental mercury, inorganic mercury and organic mercury. The different chemical forms account for the various degrees of neurotoxicity (Chuu et al. 2007). MeHg is known as organic mercury and the most notorious toxic elements for mammals (Lohren et al. 2015). MeHg can easily transport to brain tissue across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to damage nervous system (Kingman et al. 2005). The inorganic mercury like HgCl2 also has neurotoxicity (Xu et al. 2012; Moneim 2015). By contrast, mercuric sulfide (HgS) has been used in combination with traditional medicine as sedative and hypnotic effects for more than 2000 years and widely used in Asia and the Middle East (Lu et al. 2011; Ranjeet and Manish 2013; Zhao et al. 2018).