1. On average, three times more mercury is falling from the sky today
than before the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago as a result of the
increasing use of mercury and industrial emissions.
2. The
uncontrolled use of mercury in small-scale gold mining is contaminating
thousands of sites around the world, posing long-term health risks to an
estimated 50 million inhabitants of mining regions. These activities
alone contribute more than 10 percent of the mercury in Earth's
atmosphere attributable to human activities today.
3. Little is known
about the behavior of mercury in marine ecosystems and methyl-mercury
in marine fish, the ingestion of which is the primary way most people at
all levels of society worldwide are exposed to this highly toxic form
of mercury.
4. Methyl-mercury exposure now constitutes a public health problem in most regions of the world.
5. Methyl-mercury
levels in fish-eating birds and mammals in some parts of the world are
reaching toxic levels, which may lead to population declines in these
species and possibly in fish populations as well.
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