Rethinking the Minamata Tragedy : What Mercury Species was really Responsible?
(2020) In Environmental Science & Technology 54(5). p.2726-2733- Abstract
Industrial release of mercury into the local Minamata environment with consequent poisoning of local communities through contaminated fish and shellfish consumption is considered the classic case of environmental mercury poisoning. However, the mercury species in the factory effluent has proved controversial, originally suggested as inorganic, and more recently as methylmercury species. We used newly-available methods to re-examine the cerebellum of historic Cat 717, which was fed factory effluent mixed with food to confirm the source. Synchrotron high energy resolution fluorescence detection-X-ray absorption spectroscopy (HERFD-XAS) revealed sulfur-bound organometallic mercury with a minor β-HgS phase. Density functional theory (DFT)... (More)
Industrial release of mercury into the local Minamata environment with consequent poisoning of local communities through contaminated fish and shellfish consumption is considered the classic case of environmental mercury poisoning. However, the mercury species in the factory effluent has proved controversial, originally suggested as inorganic, and more recently as methylmercury species. We used newly-available methods to re-examine the cerebellum of historic Cat 717, which was fed factory effluent mixed with food to confirm the source. Synchrotron high energy resolution fluorescence detection-X-ray absorption spectroscopy (HERFD-XAS) revealed sulfur-bound organometallic mercury with a minor β-HgS phase. Density functional theory (DFT) indicated energetic preference for α-mercuri-acetaldehyde as a waste product of aldehyde production. The consequences of this alternative species in the "classic" mercury poisoning should be re-evaluated.
(Less)
- author
- publishing date
- 2020-01-17
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- in
- Environmental Science & Technology
- volume
- 54
- issue
- 5
- pages
- 2726 - 2733
- publisher
- The American Chemical Society (ACS)
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:31951385
- scopus:85081125184
- ISSN
- 1520-5851
- DOI
- 10.1021/acs.est.9b06253
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 2cdae839-71f8-4c44-9d0a-7310bc44088a
- date added to LUP
- 2020-02-07 14:43:06
- date last changed
- 2024-06-26 10:12:06
@article{2cdae839-71f8-4c44-9d0a-7310bc44088a,
abstract = {{<p>Industrial release of mercury into the local Minamata environment with consequent poisoning of local communities through contaminated fish and shellfish consumption is considered the classic case of environmental mercury poisoning. However, the mercury species in the factory effluent has proved controversial, originally suggested as inorganic, and more recently as methylmercury species. We used newly-available methods to re-examine the cerebellum of historic Cat 717, which was fed factory effluent mixed with food to confirm the source. Synchrotron high energy resolution fluorescence detection-X-ray absorption spectroscopy (HERFD-XAS) revealed sulfur-bound organometallic mercury with a minor β-HgS phase. Density functional theory (DFT) indicated energetic preference for α-mercuri-acetaldehyde as a waste product of aldehyde production. The consequences of this alternative species in the "classic" mercury poisoning should be re-evaluated.</p>}},
author = {{James, Ashley K and Nehzati, Susan and Dolgova, Natalia V and Sokaras, Dimosthenis and Kroll, Thomas and Eto, Koyomo and O'Donoghue, John L and Watson, Gene and Myers, Gary J and Krone, Patrick H and Pickering, Ingrid J and George, Graham N}},
issn = {{1520-5851}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{01}},
number = {{5}},
pages = {{2726--2733}},
publisher = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}},
series = {{Environmental Science & Technology}},
title = {{Rethinking the Minamata Tragedy : What Mercury Species was really Responsible?}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b06253}},
doi = {{10.1021/acs.est.9b06253}},
volume = {{54}},
year = {{2020}},
}