There are many definitions of the term contamination. Jefferis (2002 p. 75) provided the simple definition Bcontamination is a chemical, a living organism or energy in the wrong place.^ Paraphrasing this definition, contamination is the presence of an unwelcome component in a material, physical body, place, or other entity. In the natural environment, contamination implies that an exotic consti...

Abstract Background In Morocco, fish is an important protein source especially, even not exclusively, for coastal communities and marketed fresh all along the coastline. One of main targets artisanal fisheries European conger ( Conger conger, Linnaeus 1758), a widely distributed benthic predatory species maximum weight up to 50 kg. However, information on heavy metal contamination scarce. There...

by either decreased methylmercury production or increased methylmercury degradation in ecosystems containing high levels of total mercury. Methylmercury degradation is mediated by bacteria in sediments, in natural waters and in soils. This activity is a part of the bacterial mercury detoxification mechanism, resulting in the degradation of methylmercury to gaseous elemental mercury, which can e...

Environmental contamination has exposed humans to various metal agents, including mercury. It has been determined that mercury is not only harmful to the health of vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and children, but is also toxic to ordinary adults in various ways. For many years, mercury was used in a wide variety of human activities. Nowadays, the exposure to this metal from both ...

the objectives of this study are to investigate chromosomal aberrations of snakehead fish in a leachate-affected reservoir located 100 meters from a municipal landfill which compared to non-affected reservoir. three snakehead fish were collected and chromosomal aberrations were studied using kidney tissue. lead and mercury were measured in water, sediment and snakehead fish from the affected re...

An excellent discussion of the work of Jaroslav Heyrovsky and the development of polarography is given by Zuman (1). Of critical importance in the invention of the polarographic technique was the fact that the electrochemical experiments were carried out using the dropping mercury electrode (DME). Mercury is unique among metal electrodes for several reasons. Because it is a liquid, its interfac...

Global mercury emission inventories include anthropogenic emissions, contributing via current use or presence of mercury in a variety of products and processes, as well as natural source emissions. These inventories neglect the contribution of areas contaminated with mercury from historical accumulation, which surround mines or production plants associated with mercury production or use. Althou...

Lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic are the most important heavy metals which may cause health risks following consumption of contaminated foods. Table salt is one the mostly used food additive with unique place in food consumption. Although purified table salt is expected to have lower level of contamination, some Iranians still prefer to use rock salt. Use of rock salt for food purposes has be...

A method is presented for the rapid determination of total mercury in blood. The reagent used is alkaline sodium borohydride, and no digestion of the sample is needed. The detection limit and sensitivity are 1.15 and 1.59 ng of Hg, respectively. The method gives reproducible results (the CV ranged from 5.3 to 6.7% for low and high mercury blood samples, respectively), comparable to those obtain...

Mercury is emitted to the atmosphere from various natural and anthropogenic sources, and degrades with difficulty in the environment. Mercury exists as various species, mainly elemental (Hg(0)) and divalent (Hg(2+)) mercury depending on its oxidation states in air and water. Mercury emitted to the atmosphere can be deposited into aqueous environments by wet and dry depositions, and some can be ...