Dynamics Of Mercury Pollution On Regional And Global Scales

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the different dynamic patterns involved in the redistribution of mercury in the global environment, and its impact on human health and ecosystems. Increasing mercury usage and the lack of emission control policy, especially in fast developing countries, represent a complex environmental and political issue that can only benefit from more accurate measurement.

Mercury, primarily because of its existence and bioaccumulation as methylmercury in aquatic organisms, is a concern for the health of higher trophic level organisms, or to their consumers. This is the major factor driving current research in mercury globally and in environmental regulation, and is the driver for the current UNEP Global Partnership for Mercury Transport and Fate Research (UNEP F&T) initiative. The overall focus of the UNEP F&T report is to assess the relative importance of different processes/mechanisms affecting the transfer of mercury (Hg) from emission sources to aquatic and terrestrial receptors and provide possible source-receptor relationships. This transfer occurs through atmospheric transport, chemical transformations and subsequent deposition, and involves the intermittent recycling between reservoirs that occurs prior to ultimate removal of Hg from the atmosphere. Understanding the sources, the global Hg transport and fate, and the impact of human activity on the biosphere, requires improved knowledge of Hg movement and transformation in the atmosphere. An improved understanding of Hg emission sources, fate and transport is important if there is to be a focused and concerted effort to set priorities and goals for Hg emission management and reduction at the national, regional and global levels; and to develop and implement such policies and strategies. To achieve this, a series of coordinated scientific endeavors focused on the estimation of sources, measurement and validation of concentrations and processes, and modeling, coupled with interpretation of the results within a policy framework, is likely to be required.

This book provides the fundamentals, recent developments, and future research needs for critical mercury transformation and transport processes, as well as the experimental methods that have been employed in recent studies. The coverage discusses the environmental behavior and toxicological effects of mercury on organisms, including humans, and provides case studies at the end of each chapter. Bringing together information normally spread across several books, this text is unique in covering the entire mercury cycle and providing a baseline for what is known and what uncertainties remain in respect to mercury cycling.

Recent advances in air pollution monitoring and modeling capabilities have made it possible to show that air pollution can be transported long distances and that adverse impacts of emitted pollutants cannot be confined to one country or even one continent. Pollutants from traffic, cooking stoves, and factories emitted half a world away can make the air we inhale today more hazardous for our health. The relative importance of this "imported" pollution is likely to increase, as emissions in developing countries grow, and air quality standards in industrial countries are tightened. Global Sources of Local Pollution examines the impact of the long-range transport of four key air pollutants (ozone, particulate matter, mercury, and persistent organic pollutants) on air quality and pollutant deposition in the United States. It also explores the environmental impacts of U.S. emissions on other parts of the world. The book recommends that the United States work with the international community to develop an integrated system for determining pollution sources and impacts and to design effective response strategies. This book will be useful to international, federal, state, and local policy makers responsible for understanding and managing air pollution and its impacts on human health and well-being.

Practical Aspects of Computational Chemistry II: An Overview of the Last Two Decades and Current Trends gathers the discussion of advances made within the last 20 years by well-known experts in the area of theoretical and computational chemistry and physics. The title reflects the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the “Conference on Current Trends in Computational Chemistry (CCTCC)” to success of which all authors contributed. Starting with the recent development of modeling of solvation effect using the Polarizable Continuum Model (PCM) at the Coupled-Cluster level and the effects of extreme pressure on the molecular properties within the PCM framework, this volume focuses on the association/dissociation of ion pairs in binary solvent mixtures, application of graph theory to determine the all possible structures and temperature-dependent distribution of water cluster, generalized-ensemble algorithms for the complex molecular simulation, QM/MD based investigation of formation of different nanostructures under nonequilibrium conditions, quantum mechanical study of chemical reactivity of carbon nanotube, covalent functionalization of single walled-carbon nanotube, designing of functional materials, importance of long-range dispersion interaction to study nanomaterials, recent advances in QSPR/QSAR analysis of nitrocompounds, prediction of physico-chemical properties of energetic materials, electronic structure and properties of 3d transition metal dimers, the s-bond activation reactions by transition metal complexes, theoretical modeling of environmental mercury depletion reaction, organolithium chemistry and computational modeling of low-energy electron induced DNA damage. Practical Aspects of Computational Chemistry II: An Overview of the Last Two Decades and Current Trends is aimed at theoretical and computational chemists, physical chemists, materials scientists, and particularly those who are eager to apply computational chemistry methods to problems of chemical and physical importance. This book provides valuable information to undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students as well as to established researchers. Practical Aspects of Computational Chemistry II: An Overview of the Last Two Decades and Current Trends is aimed at theoretical and computational chemists, physical chemists, materials scientists, and particularly those who are eager to apply computational chemistry methods to problems of chemical and physical importance. This book provides valuable information to undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students as well as to established researchers.

"Mercury deposition and contamination is widespread and well documented, and it continues to be a public-health concern for certain sectors of the global human population in both developed and developing countries. This edited volume focuses on integrating the diverse sciences involved in the process of mercury cycling in the environment--from the atmosphere, through terrestrial and aquatic food webs, and human populations--to develop a comprehensive perspective on this important environmental pollutant. Using a systems-level approach, this book provides recommendations on mercury remediation, risk communication, education, and monitoring. In response to a growing need for understanding the cycling of this ubiquitous pollutant, the science of mercury has grown rapidly, expanding into several interdisciplinary fields and encompassing such disparate academic and scientific disciplines as biogeochemistry, economics, sociology, public health, decision sciences, physics, global change, and mathematics. Only recently have scientists really begun to establish more holistic approaches to studying mercury pollution, giving rise to investigations that have furthered the integration of a multi-tiered approach, especially by using chemistry, biology, and human health sciences collectively. The study of mercury pollution has produced a variety of contributions to domestic and international policies related to the management of mercury in the environment"--

Is Italy il bel paese—the beautiful country—where tourists spend their vacations looking for art, history, and scenery? Or is it a land whose beauty has been cursed by humanity’s greed and nature’s cruelty? The answer is largely a matter of narrative and the narrator’s vision of Italy. The fifteen essays in Nature and History in Modern Italy investigate that nation’s long experience in managing domesxadtixadcated rather than wild natures and offer insight into these conflicting visions. Italians shaped their land in the most literal sense, producing the landscape, sculpting its heritage, embedding memory in nature, and rendering the two different visions inseparxadable. The interplay of Italy’s rich human history and its dramatic natural diversity is a subject with broad appeal to a wide range of readers.

This book provides a comprehensive and scientifically based overview of the biocompatibility of dental materials. Up-to-date concepts of biocompatibility assessment are presented, as well as information on almost all material groups used in daily dentistry practice. Furthermore, special topics of clinical relevance (e.g,, environmental and occupational hazards and the diagnosis of adverse effects) are covered. The book will: improve the reader’s ability to critically analyze information provided by manufacturers supply a better understanding of the biocompatibility of single material groups, which will help the reader choose the most appropriate materials for any given patient and thus prevent adverse effects from developing provide insights on how to conduct objective, matter-of-fact discussions with patients about the materials to be used in dental procedures advise readers, through the use of well-documented concepts, on how to treat patients who claim adverse effects from dental materials feature clinical photographs that will serve as a reference when analyzing clinical symptoms, such as oral mucosa reactions.