Mercury general human toxicity

Because many batteries contain toxic constituents such as mercury and cadmium, they pose a potential threat to human health and the environment when improperly disposed. Although batteries generally make up only a tiny portion of MSW, <1%, they account for a disproportionate amount of the toxic heavy metals in MSW. For example, the U.S. EPA has reported that, as of 1995, nickel-cadmium batteries accounted for 75% of the cadmium found in MSW. When MSW is incinerated or disposed of in landfills, under certain improper management scenarios, these toxics can be released into the environment. 

The mechanism of thallium toxicity at the molecular level in animals and humans seems to be analogous to the enzyme-inhibiting effects of lead and mercury, and an oxidative stress, resulting in a general histotox-icity (Table 22.2) (Repetto et al. 1998, Leung and Ooi 2000, Appenroth and Winnefeld... 

Pollutants are either primary or secondary ones. Primary pollutants are generally produced directly from a process while secondary pollutants result when primary pollutants react or interact. Primary pollutants produced by human activity include sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter (fine particles), toxic metals (examples lead and mercury, etc.) and others. 

The toxic metals present in industrial effluent streams include heavy metals such as silver, lead, mercury, nickel, zinc, and chromium. These heavy metals accumulate in soil and are eventually transferred to the human food chain. In irradiation treatment the general strategy is the reduction of higher oxidation state ions to lower oxidation state ions in lower oxidation state the solubility is usually lower, so often the reduced ions can be separated by precipitation. The reduction is done by the hydrated electron and hydrogen atom (under oxygen-free conditions) and/or by other reducing-type radicals formed in hydroxyl radical + alcohol or in hydroxyl radical + acetic acid reaction (see for instance reaction (O 23.34) and (O 23.144)) (Haji-Saeid 2007 Chaychian et al. 1998 Belloni and Mostafavi 2004 Belloni and Remita 2008). 

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