Phenylmercury environment

Human activities have resulted in the release of a wide variety of both inorganic and organic forms of mercury. The electrical industry, chloro-alkali industry, and the burning of fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, etc.) release elemental mercury into the atmosphere. Metallic mercury has also been released directly to fresh water by chloro-alkali plants, and both phenylmer-cuiy and methylmercury compounds have been released into fresh and sea water -phenylmercury by the wood paper-pulp industry, particularly in Sweden, and methyl-mercury by chemical manufacturers in Japan. Important mercury compounds which also may be released into the environment include mercury(II) oxide, mercury(II) sulfide (cinnabar), mercury chlorides, mer-cury(II) bromide, mercury(II) iodine, mer-cury(II) cyanide, mercury(II) thiocyanate, mercury(II) acetate, mercury nitrates, mercury sulfates, mercury(II) amidochloride monoalkyl- and monoarylmercury(II) halides, borates and nitrates dialkylmercury compounds like dimethylmercury, alkoxyal-kylmercury compounds or diphenylmercury (Simon and Wiihl-Couturier 2002) (for quantities involved, see Section 17.4). 

Berlin M (1963 b) Renal uptake, retention and excretion of mercury. II. A study in the rabbit during infusion of methyl- and phenylmercury compounds. Arch. Environ. Health 6 626... 

II. An autoradiographic comparison of phenylmercurie acetate with inorganic mercury. Arch. Environ. Health 6 602... 

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