How one country is grappling with mercury emissions from artisanal gold shops

What goes unseen are the toxic emissions from the rudimentary refining taking place within the many gold shops. Shop workers use mercury to separate the gold from other minerals and then burn off the mercury to yield pure gold. Depending on how open the shops are or how equipment is vented, “when they heat the gold up, the pollution travels down the street,” says Adam Kiefer, a chemistry professor at Mercer University.
read more... https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/one-country-grappling-mercury-emissions/98/i10