(credit: US DOE)
Coal-fired plants and other human activities release mercury into the environment, where some of it ends up converted into methyl mercury, a potent neurotoxin. Because of this toxicity, the Environmental Protection Agency is currently in the process of tightening emissions rules at US power plants.
Global estimates of how much mercury we're emitting indicates that humanity is putting more of the substance into the atmosphere. But various direct measurements of the amount in the environment have been declining slowly over the past few decades. So where's the missing mercury? A new study suggests that we've cleaned it up while getting different pollutants under control.
Mercury emissions actually come in two forms. Some of it is released as neutral atoms, which are able to circulate widely in the atmosphere before being oxidized and falling to the surface. Another portion of the emissions are already oxidized and result in local contamination.
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