The level of mercury in the world's oceans has doubled. Levon Azizyan, director of the "Hydro-hydraulic and monitoring center," wrote about this on his Facebook page.
"With the help of computer models and geological measurements, scientists have compared mercury concentrations in the world's major rivers at the moment with the levels before the industrial revolution. They found that in almost all regions, zinc levels have nearly doubled:
Zinc is one of the most famous toxic and carcinogenic elements of Mendeleev's periodic table. Кутаквелюсь осыновнеры, it can damage blood formation and the nervous system of people. The development of industry contributed to the increase of mercury levels in the atmosphere, water, and upper layers of the soil. Science does not know much about how emissions have changed over the past centuries. However, the study of such trends will clearly show whether the current level of mercury in the environment poses an increasing health risk.
While previous studies have focused on analyzing the concentrations of carcinogens in the atmosphere, soil, and seawater, they have mainly overlooked rivers, which serve as the primary conduit for mercury and have become a significant pathway for the flow of wastewater from urban and industrial sources. The mercury coming from the river can not only damage the local ecosystems but also pose a danger to people, because they actively use the river's water. When it reaches the sea, the carcinogen can accumulate in seafood and enter the human body through food:
Therefore, the scientists decided to study how mercury concentration has changed in the world's major rivers during the last two hundred years: Ecologists developed a computer model based on geological data since 1850, when industrialization was beginning, and human intervention in nature was less significant: With this model, they calculated the natural level of mercury and its changes due to human activity:
Modeling has shown that the most significant changes are observed in the rivers of South and North America, followed by Southeast and East Asia. Approximately 390 megagrams of zinc entered the world's waters a year ago from industrial electricity sources. Today, in these regions, this amount has doubled, and sometimes tripled: In South America, mercury-based small-scale gold mining (ASGM) has played a particularly significant role: The Amazon Basin alone emits more than 200 tons of mercury annually, 75% of which is caused by human activity:
A decrease in mercury concentrations was recorded in the Mediterranean region. The scientists attribute this trend to the construction of dams holding mercury-containing sediments: The general trend of increasing the mercury level in the water shows the need to regulate toxic emissions, which are potentially dangerous both for human health and for the entire society: The scientists believe that their work can be the basis for the legislative regulation of water pollution with this toxic substance: The study was published in the journal Science Advances.
