Tough talk over mercury treaty

Streets estimates that human activity has released a grand total of about 350,000 tonnes of mercury, with roughly 40% of those emissions occurring before 1850 (see ‘Quicksilver quantified’). Much of the rest came from silver and gold mining in the late nineteenth century, when mercury was used to extract precious metals. However, emissions have soared in recent decades, propelled by small-scale, or artisanal, gold mining in Africa and Latin America, and rapid industrialization in Asia (D. G. Streetset al. Environ. Sci. Technol. 45, 10485–10491; 2011). China is now the biggest emitter, contributing 30% of global anthropogenic emissions.
http://www.nature.com/news/tough-talk-over-mercury-treaty-1.12163