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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 8 page paper discusses mercury contamination of the environment and the problems it causes when ingested by humans. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVToxMer.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
his chemical counterpart: mercury, the metal, can be extremely harmful to the environment as to humans, especially children. This paper discusses the toxic effects mercury can have on both.
What Is Mercury? Mercury (chemical symbol Hg) is an element that occurs naturally, taking one of three forms: elemental, inorganic and organic (Pike-Paris, 2004). Elemental mercury is a liquid
that is "heavy, shiny, silver, [and] odorless" (Pike-Paris, 2004, p. 150). Elemental mercury is found in such natural sources as "ore, fossil fuels, mining, volcanoes" and in man-made sources
such as fluorescent lights, thermometers, and barometers (Pike-Paris, 2004, p. 150). Inorganic mercury is "founding mercury salts (combined with either chlorine, sulfur or oxygen)" and is currently banned
in the United States (Pike-Paris, 2004, p. 150). Organic mercury "is found in three compounds: methyl-, ethyl- and phenylmercury. Methylmercury is the most toxic, formed by microorganisms from elemental
mercury found in the environment via human or natural sources" (Pike-Paris, 2004, p. 150). Mercury in any form is poses a danger to both the environment and to living
organisms, including human beings. Environmental Contamination There is mercury in the environment from both natural and man-made sources; the natural sources include volcanoes and forest fires (Lutter and Irwin, 2002).
However, its difficult to determine the precise cause of contamination in the U.S. because "mercury travels long distances in the air," so releases of mercury vapor may "be regional
or even global rather than local" (Lutter and Irwin, 2002, p. 24). That is, theres no accurate way to pinpoint where the releases occur, unless there is some sort
of catastrophic event. However, we have some idea: "forty percent ... of the mercury deposited from the air onto U.S. water and soil in 1995 came from the
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