Mercury volatilization

In addition to the chemicals included on the other lists, the CDC also included heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, and mercury volatile solvents such as benzene, chloroform, and bromoform decomposition products such as dioxins and furans polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) flammable industrial gases and liquids such as gasoline and propane explosives and oxidizers and all persistent and nonpersistent pesticides. Agents included in this volume are limited to those that are most likely to pose an acute toxicity hazard. 

O Driscoll, N.J.O, Poissant, L., Canrio, J., Lean, D.R.S. 2008. Dissolved gaseous mercury concentrations and mercury volatilization in a frozen freshwater fluvial lake. Environmental Science and... 

Olson, G. J., F. D. Porter, J. Rubinstein, and S. Silver. 1982. Mercuric reductase from a mercury-volatilizing strain of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. J. Bacteriol. 151 (3) 1230-1236. 

Bisogni, J.J., Jr. 1989. Using mercury volatility to measure redox potential in oxic aqueous systems. Environ. Sci. Technol. 23, 828-831. 

TEMPERATURE °C. VAPOUR TENSION (mm. mercury) VOLATILITY mgm.l litre... 

Being based on the bacterial mercury volatilization mechanism, and exploiting advantages that offer immobilization s techniques, we have planned to remove mercury from a synthetic mercurial water using a bacterial strain that has been isolated, identified and appeared to be resistant to high mercury concentrations, compared to those reported in literature. 

This bacterial strain has been entrapped into both alginate and polyacrylamide gels, and immobilized by physical absorption on either vermiculite or cooper beech. The mercury volatilization was studied in a fluidized bed reactor. Cleanup and volatilizing rates obtained were compared. 

Four bacterial strains which grow on mercurial plates were isolated from mercury contaminated sludge. These mercury resistant bacteria were subjected to Gram stain and all were Gram-negative. The results of identification of these mercury volatilizing bacteria were Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas putida, Enterobacter agglomerans and Proteus mirabilis. 

The evolution of mercury volatilization according to the time is represented in Figure lb. 

The early alchemists and natural philosophers believed in the duality of matter —sun and moon male and female sulfur (fixed) and mercury (volatile). When Davy electrolyzed pure potash (KOH) and produced a volatile (female) spirit (oxygen) at the positive pole and an explosive, fixed (male) matter (potassium) at the negative pole, this would have been intuitively obvious to them. 

The amount of mercury in the syringe should be proportional to the concentration of mercury in the liquid phase, if equilibrium was established. While the toluene sample was constructed at a lower concentration (14.5 pg/kg) than the US19-C12/Hg sample (124 pg/kg), it consistently provided more mercury to the vapor phase. This demonstrates the effect of liquid phase composition on mercury volatility. It is not known if complete equilibrium was established between mercury in the vapor and liquid phase, but the qualitative trends are apparent. Volatile mercury partitions to the vapor space of sample containers at a significant rate. 

Metallic or elemental mercury volatilizes to mercury vapor at ambient air temperatures, and most human exposure is by way of inhalation. The saturated vapor pressure at 20.0°C is 13.2mg/m. This value far exceeds the threshold limited value (TLV) of 0.05 mg/m accordingly, mercury intoxication due to inhalation of the vapor readily occurs in various occupational and environmental situations. Mercury vapor readily diffuses across the alveolar membrane and is hpid soluble so that it has an affinity for the central nervous system and red blood cells. Metallic mercury, unlike mercury vapor, is only slowly absorbed by the G1 tract (0.01%) at a rate related to the vaporization of the elemental mercury and is of negligible toxicological significance. 

By 1989, it was shown that mercury-volatilizing bacterial strains comprised 5.3% of all bacterial strains isolated from Minamata Bay or three times more abundant than control isolates moreover, the number of bacterial isolates from Minamata Bay able to volatilize Hg from phenylmercury was twenty times greater than reference isolates. The development of mutant bacterial strains with the ability to detoxify inorganic and organic mercurials is continuing. 

While the relative importance and precise mechanisms of these competing processes are currently unknown, it is likely that the balance of photo-reduction and photo-oxidation controls DGM dynamics in freshwaters. This is supported by the work of O Driscoll et al. [32], which shows that DGM dynamics can be accurately modeled as a reversible first order reaction between oxidation states. O Driscoll et al. [47] also determined that DOC concentration and levels of photo-reducible mercury are central to determining the rate of DGM production. While the results in Ref. [32] indicate that current predictive models do not accurately predict mercury volatilization, new research and refined... 

In addition, volatilization of mercury was found to be an important loss process in the BDW watershed. The magnitude of volatilization appears to be approximately double the direct wet deposition over lake and wetlands, and 27% of the direct wet deposition to the terrestrial catchment. Over the entire basin area the mass of mercury volatilized is 46% of the mass deposited by wet deposition. 

The work performed in Kejimkujik Park, Nova Scotia demonstrates that substantial mercury bioaccumulation can occur in remote areas where no abnormal sources of mercury exist. The mass balance preformed at BDW Lake in Kejimkujik Park, showed that movement of atmospheric mercury from the terrestrial catchment to wetland areas is the primary source of methyl mercury to the lake. Mercury volatilization was found to be an important process in this basin with annual volatilization equaling 46% of the mercury deposited by precipitation over the entire lake basin. This paper demonstrates that mercury speciation must be known to reliably predict the effect of anthropogenic influences on a regional and global scale. 

The determination of all trace metals in natural waters present a challenge to the analytical chemist, but the unique properties of mercury (volatility, strong complexes with natural organic compounds, etc.) require extra precautions in addition to those taken for other heavy metals. This makes the role of the analytical chemist even more crucial in studies of mercury in the environment. 

I. Coloradoite—449 °C endotherm, coloradoite decomposes and is transformed to mercury and tellurium mercury volatilizes and tellurium melts 601 °C exotherm, tellurium oxidizes and is transformed to Te02, 656 °C endotherm, Te02 melts 986 °C endotherm, Te02 evaporates. 

Possible reduction of inorganic mercury to elemental mercury in mammals was first noted by Clarkson et al. (1964), who showed evidence of mercury volatilization in rats given mercuric chloride. Dunn et al. (1981a,b) found that an oral dose of ethanol after injection of mercuric mercury dramatically increased the exhalation of mercury in mice. Ethanol elevated the mercury exhalation in a dose-dependent manner. Aminotriazole given to mercuric chloride-injected mice also increased the exhalation of mercury (SuGATA and Clarkson 1979). 

In an in vitro experiment with liver homogenate (Dunn et al. 1981b), mercury volatilization activity was enhanced by the addition of ethanol but disappeared on heating. The highest mercury volatilization activity was found in the cytosol fraction. However, the actual entity responsible for the reduction of mercury to its volatile form is still unclear. Ogata et al. (1987) reported a higher rate of mercury volatilization in vitro in the presence of a superoxide anion-producing system such as xanthine/xanthine oxidase. 

Metallic mercury volatilizes to mercury vapor at ambient air temperatures and as a result is the most likely means by which a worker can be exposed. Mercury can be found in the ore that contains gold and silver. The process of recovering the precious metals from the ore concentrates mercury, and as a result, the potential for miner exposure to mercury can occur throughout the concentration and refinery process. Concentrating the precious metals will also concentrate mercmy by a factor of 3,000 to 4,000 (Marsdenet al. 1992). 

---