FATE OF MERCURY IN THE ARCTIC Michael Evan ... - COGCI

Fate of Mercury in the Arctic 18
2. Overview
The purpose of this chapter is to give a general background for the rest of this thesis, in order to
understand the approach used to address the scientific questions. The overview should also help
place the results of this work in the context of atmospheric chemistry and importance for the global
mercury cycle and the Kingdom of Denmark, and therefore the Danish Arctic perspective.
2.1 General Mercury
Metallic mercury, Nr. 80 in the periodic system, density 13.5 g/cm 3 has been known since 400
B.C. when a disciple of Aristotle (Theophrastus) described a method of producing what he
described as “liquid silver” by rubbing cinnabar in vinegar. It has since been widely used in
metallurgy and other industrial processes.
As Hg is an element, man can neither create nor destroy it.
Mercury is toxic and the toxicity of mercury vapour and its affects on the central nervous
system has been observed and well known through time, for example, the Romans equivocated
sending someone to work in the mercury mines of Spain as a death sentence. Most have heard of
the “mad hatters”, felt workers who became insane from working with mercury, popularized by
Lewis Carrol (“Alice in Wonderland”).
Mercury use has been found in various cultures as a part of dyes, cosmetics and medicines (e.g.
Ernst and Coon, 2001 or Garvey et al., 2001). Its ancient cultural use can be seen in examples from
the old, new and Asian cultures. For example during the Kofun period (6 th century) Japan, it was
thought that mercury was painted onto the body of a dead person (Yamada et al., 1995).
The world’s largest producer of mercury has been and still is the Almaden area of Spain.
Mercury has always been important to metallurgy. It was mined and sent to the new world for