Mercury Contamination, Removal, and Health Risk Assessment

Mercury Contamination, Removal, and Health Risk Assessment

This community investigates the environmental sources, transport, and removal of mercury, with a specific focus on the health risks posed by exposure to elemental and methylated forms in humans and aquatic ecosystems.

The research centers on the detection and mitigation of mercury in industrial flue gas, mining wastewater, and natural water bodies. Key methodologies include adsorption using engineered materials, chemical removal processes, and risk assessment models for human health. A significant portion of the work addresses the impact of artisanal and small-scale gold mining on local populations and ecosystems. The literature also examines the biogeochemical cycling of mercury, including methylation processes in soils and sediments, and the accumulation of methylmercury in fish and other aquatic organisms. These studies aim to quantify exposure levels and evaluate the toxicological mechanisms affecting human and ecological health.

The largest share of this community's output is found in mercury research, accounting for 52.7% of all mercury research, and 18,295 papers here. Gold research contributes 2.5% of its total output, representing 592 papers.

The community comprises 22,040 papers, primarily published in Science of The Total Environment, Environmental Science & Technology, and Environmental Pollution.

Recent work continues to focus on the health risks of heavy metals in aquatic foods, the detection of toxic elements in food samples, and the atmospheric transport and redox transformations of mercury. Studies also examine the genomic potential for mercury biotransformation in marine sediments and the development of new adsorbents for mercury ion removal from water.

Papers behind this description

• The Toxicity of Mercury and Its Chemical Compounds: Molecular Mechanisms and Environmental and Human Health Implications: A Comprehensive Review — ACS Omega, 2024 — doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c07047
• Heavy Metal Pollution in Coastal Environments: Ecological Implications and Management Strategies: A Review — Sustainability, 2025 — doi:10.3390/su17020701
• Trophic transfer and biomagnification potential of environmental contaminants (heavy metals) in aquatic ecosystems — Environmental Pollution, 2024 — doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122815
• Bioaccumulation and Trophic Transfer of Heavy Metals in Marine Fish: Ecological and Ecosystem-Level Impacts — Journal of Xenobiotics, 2025 — doi:10.3390/jox15020059
• Gut Microbiota Modulation Through Mediterranean Diet Foods: Implications for Human Health — Nutrients, 2025 — doi:10.3390/nu17060948
• Efficient removal of gaseous elemental mercury by Fe-UiO-66@BC composite adsorbent: performance evaluation and mechanistic elucidation — Separation and Purification Technology, 2025 — doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2025.133463
• Mercury Exposure and Health Effects: What Do We Really Know? — International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2025 — doi:10.3390/ijms26052326
• Human Health and Ocean Pollution — Annals of Global Health, 2020 — doi:10.5334/aogh.2831
• Nutritional profiling of Oncorhynchus mykiss from Çamlıgöze Dam, Türkiye: Health risk assessment through Monte Carlo simulation and elemental source attribution using positive matrix factorization — Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 2025 — doi:10.1016/j.psep.2025.107172
• Mercury sources, contaminations, mercury cycle, detection and treatment techniques: A review — Chemosphere, 2022 — doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137314
• Our evolved understanding of the human health risks of mercury — AMBIO, 2023 — doi:10.1007/s13280-023-01831-6
• Mining wastewater treatment technologies and resource recovery techniques: A review — Heliyon, 2024 — doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24730
• Heavy metal risks in aquatic foods — Environment International, 2025 — doi:10.1016/j.envint.2025.109831
• Heavy metal toxicity and its role as a major driver of past biodiversity crises — Communications Earth & Environment, 2025 — doi:10.1038/s43247-025-02781-5
• Atmospheric mercury: recent advances in theoretical, computational, experimental, observational, and isotopic understanding to decipher its redox transformations in the upper and lower atmosphere and interactions with Earth surface reservoirs — Atmospheric chemistry and physics, 2025 — doi:10.5194/acp-25-12233-2025
• From water and sediment to seafood: Heavy metal contamination and human health risk in wild and cultured oysters from a developing coastal region — Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2026 — doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2026.119313
• Preparation of hypercrosslinked porous polymer modified with paired thiol groups via in-situ disulfide bond cleavage for the rapid and efficient adsorption of mercury ions from water — Separation and Purification Technology, 2025 — doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2025.133669
• Ecological and Human Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Mining-Affected River Sediments in the Peruvian Central Highlands — Toxics, 2025 — doi:10.3390/toxics13090783