Modelling the anthropogenic Hg pollution fingerprint on the marine fishery production worldwide: A preliminary exposure assessment for people living in countries having different income levels.

Mercury is a toxic pollutant that poses risks for the human population, mainly by eating contaminated fish. Mercury is released into the atmosphere from a variety of anthropogenic activities, with levels of emissions and under policy controls that largely vary across the world, leading thus to different relative contributions to the environmental matrices. Establishing the exact sources of this contaminant in the environment is crucial to optimising the policies aimed at mitigating the exposure risks for specific populations or ecosystems.

Triazine Herbicide and NPK Fertilizer Exposure: Accumulation of Heavy Metals and Rare Earth Elements, Effects on Cuticle Melanization, and Immunocompetence in the Model Species .

The increasing use of agrochemicals, including fertilizers and herbicides, has led to worrying metal contamination of soils and waters and raises serious questions about the effects of their transfer to different levels of the trophic web. Accumulation and biomagnification of essential (K, Na, Mg, Zn, Ca), nonessential (Sr, Hg, Rb, Ba, Se, Cd, Cr, Pb, As), and rare earth elements (REEs) were investigated in newly emerged adults of exposed to field-admitted concentrations of a metribuzin-based herbicide and an NPK blend fertilizer. Chemical analyses were performed using inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS) supported by unsupervised pattern recognition techniques.

Seven-year monitoring of mercury in wet precipitation and atmosphere at the Amsterdam Island GMOS station.

Mercury (Hg) fate and transport research requires more effort to obtain a deep knowledge of its biogeochemical cycle, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere and Tropics that are still missing of distributed monitoring sites. Continuous monitoring of atmospheric Hg concentrations and trend worldwide is relevant for the effectiveness evaluation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury (MCM) actions. In this context, Gaseous Elemental Mercury (GEM) and total mercury (THg) in precipitations were monitored from 2013 to 2019 at the Amsterdam Island Observatory (AMS - 37°48'S, 77°34'E) to provide insights into the Hg pathway in the remote southern Indian Ocean, also considering ancillary dataset of Rn-222, CO, CO, and CH.

Mediterranean Mercury Assessment 2022: An Updated Budget, Health Consequences, and Research Perspectives.

Mercury (Hg) and especially its methylated species (MeHg) are toxic chemicals that contaminate humans via the consumption of seafood. The most recent UNEP Global Mercury Assessment stressed that Mediterranean populations have higher Hg levels than people elsewhere in Europe. The present Critical Review updates current knowledge on the sources, biogeochemical cycling, and mass balance of Hg in the Mediterranean and identifies perspectives for future research especially in the context of global change.

Analytical study on the primary and secondary organic carbon and elemental carbon in the particulate matter at the high-altitude Monte Curcio GAW station, Italy.

This study provides a thorough investigation of the trends of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in particulate matter (PM) and PM samples collected at the Monte Curcio Observatory (1780 m a.s.l.

An innovative green protocol for the quantification of benzothiazoles, benzotriazoles and benzosulfonamides in PM using microwave-assisted extraction coupled with solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry.

Benzothiazoles (BTHs), benzotriazoles (BTRs), and benzenesulfonamides (BSAs) are chemicals used in several industrial and household applications. Despite these compounds are emerging pollutants, there is still a lack of information about their presence in outdoor air samples. In this paper, we developed a new method for the quantification of BTHs, BTRs, and BSAs in airborne particulate matter (PM).

Multiscale assessment of the impact on air quality of an intense wildfire season in southern Italy.

The summer of 2017 in the Calabria Region (South Italy) was an exceptional wildfire season with the largest area burned by wildfires in the last 11 years (2008-2019). The equivalent black carbon (EBC) and carbon monoxide (CO) measurements, recorded at the high-altitude Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Monte Curcio (MCU) regional station, were analyzed to establish the wildfires' impact on air quality, human health, and the ecosystem. A method was applied to identify the possible wildfires that influenced the air quality based on the integration of fire data (both satellite and ground-based) and the high-resolution WRF-HYSPLIT trajectories.

Agrochemical treatments as a source of heavy metals and rare earth elements in agricultural soils and bioaccumulation in ground beetles.

The continuous and extensive application of agrochemicals leads to the accumulation of heavy metals (HMs) and rare earth elements (REEs) in agricultural soils and their transfer in the food web with consequent relevant risks for human and ecosystem health. In this study, HM and REE concentrations were quantified in the soil of wheat crop fields conventionally managed in the agricultural areas of Sila Mountain (Southern Italy) and compared with the concentration in a field of wild herbs, used as control. Statistical analyses and principal component analysis suggested that the use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers contributes to the accumulation of HMs and REEs in the soil.

Modification of the EPA method 1631E for the quantification of total mercury in natural waters.

To support the effectiveness of the Minamata Convention, the accurate determinations of mercury (Hg) in natural waters is an important but certainly challenging task due to the low concentrations expected in ambient samples. Mercury contamination may occur from many sources such as the unproperly-cleaning of storage bottles or the use of reagents for sample analysis with Hg traces, thus leading the analyst to easily run into errors. In our work, we propose some key modifications to the United States Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) method 1631E aimed at reducing the Hg contamination of reagents, storage containers, and minimizing the carryover effect in the instrumental line of sampling.

Spatial and taxonomic variation of mercury concentration in low trophic level fauna from the Mediterranean Sea.

Studies of mercury (Hg) in the Mediterranean Sea have focused on pollution sources, air-sea mercury exchange, abiotic mercury cycling, and seafood. Much less is known about methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in the lower food web. Zooplankton and small fish were sampled from the neuston layer at both coastal and open sea stations in the Mediterranean Sea during three cruise campaigns undertaken in the fall of 2011 and the summers of 2012 and 2013.

Passive Sampling of Gaseous Elemental Mercury Based on a Composite TiO₂NP/AuNP Layer.

Passive sampling systems (PASs) are a low cost strategy to quantify Hg levels in air over both different environmental locations and time periods of few hours to weeks/months. For this reason, novel nanostructured materials have been designed and developed. They consist of an adsorbent layer made of titania nanoparticles (TiO₂NPs, ≤25 nm diameter) finely decorated with gold nanoparticles.

A green approach for organophosphate ester determination in airborne particulate matter: Microwave-assisted extraction using hydroalcoholic mixture coupled with solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Particulate matter (PM) is among the most dangerous air pollutants, and there is a growing concern related to the effects of airborne particles on human health. Their harmful effects can be derived are directly linked to the size of particles themselves and the associated pollutants after they have been taken up by inhalation. In this work was developed a new analytical method for the quantification of organophosphorus esters (OPE) bound to airborne PM.

Feedback mechanisms between snow and atmospheric mercury: Results and observations from field campaigns on the Antarctic plateau.

The Antarctic Plateau snowpack is an important environment for the mercury geochemical cycle. We have extensively characterized and compared the changes in surface snow and atmospheric mercury concentrations that occur at Dome C. Three summer sampling campaigns were conducted between 2013 and 2016.

Genetic Aspects of Susceptibility to Mercury Toxicity: An Overview.

Human exposure to mercury is still a major public health concern. In this context, children have a higher susceptibility to adverse neurological mercury effects, compared to adults with similar exposures. Moreover, there exists a marked variability of personal response to detrimental mercury action, in particular among population groups with significant mercury exposure.

Particulate-phase mercury emissions from biomass burning and impact on resulting deposition: a modelling assessment.

Mercury (Hg) emissions from biomass burning (BB) are an important source of atmospheric Hg and a major factor driving the interannual variation of Hg concentrations in the troposphere. The greatest fraction of Hg from BB is released in the form of elemental . However, little is known about the fraction of Hg bound to particulate matter (Hg) released from BB, and the factors controlling this fraction are also uncertain.

Atmospheric mercury concentrations observed at ground-based monitoring sites globally distributed in the framework of the GMOS network.

Long-term monitoring of data of ambient mercury (Hg) on a global scale to assess its emission, transport, atmospheric chemistry, and deposition processes is vital to understanding the impact of Hg pollution on the environment. The Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project was funded by the European Commission (http://www.gmos.

Data quality through a web-based QA/QC system: implementation for atmospheric mercury data from the global mercury observation system.

The overall goal of the on-going Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project is to develop a coordinated global monitoring network for mercury, including ground-based, high altitude and sea level stations. In order to ensure data reliability and comparability, a significant effort has been made to implement a centralized system, which is designed to quality assure and quality control atmospheric mercury datasets. This system, GMOS-Data Quality Management (G-DQM), uses a web-based approach with real-time adaptive monitoring procedures aimed at preventing the production of poor-quality data.

Mercury speciation in the Adriatic Sea.

Mercury and its speciation were studied in surface and deep waters of the Adriatic Sea. Several mercury species (i.e.

Mercury in the Mediterranean, part I: spatial and temporal trends.

The present paper provides an overview of mercury studies performed in the Mediterranean Sea region in the framework of several research projects funded by the European Commission and on-going national programmes carried out during the last 15 years. These studies investigated the temporal and spatial distribution of mercury species in air, in the water column and sediments, and the transport mechanisms connecting them. It was found that atmospheric concentrations of Hg compounds, particularly oxidised Hg species observed at five coastal sites in the Mediterranean Sea Basin, are significantly higher compared with those recorded at five coastal sites distributed across N Europe, most probably due to natural emissions.

Development and application of a regional-scale atmospheric mercury model based on WRF/Chem: a Mediterranean area investigation.

The emission, transport, deposition and eventual fate of mercury (Hg) in the Mediterranean area has been studied using a modified version of the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF/Chem). This model version has been developed specifically with the aim to simulate the atmospheric processes determining atmospheric Hg emissions, concentrations and deposition online at high spatial resolution. For this purpose, the gas phase chemistry of Hg and a parametrised representation of atmospheric Hg aqueous chemistry have been added to the regional acid deposition model version 2 chemical mechanism in WRF/Chem.