Study reveals frighteningly vast amounts of mercury in U.S. land; high concentrations falling from the sky during rainfall
by: David Gutierrez
NaturalNews.com
Friday, March 11, 2016
After steadily dropping for many years, mercury levels in some parts of the United States are starting to rise again, according to a study published in Science of the Total Environment.
The long-term national trend is still downward, but levels of mercury in rainwater increased across the Rocky Mountains and the Midwest between 2007 and 2013.
“It’s a surprising result,” said co-author David Gay of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. “Everybody expected [mercury levels] to continue going down. But our analysis shows that may not necessarily be the case.”
Mercury is a chemical element that functions as a potent neurotoxin. The majority of mercury in the environment is released by human industrial activities, primarily through the burning of coal. Atmospheric mercury, such as from coal combustion, is washed into the water and soil by rainfall.
Mercury not coming from the U.S.
The researchers analyzed data collected by a network of sites in the United States and Canada that measure the mercury content of precipitation. Data collection began in 1997, and initially showed only a downward trend in mercury levels. Beginning in 2007 or 2008, however, some sites started to show increases rather than decreases.
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