Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Mercury is a widespread pollutant that poses health risks to humans and wildlife at a global scale. Addressing these risks requires science-based integrated policy approaches.
USGS scientists collaborated with US and Canadian scientists from governmental agencies, universities, and non-governmental organizations to summarize the state of knowledge on mercury as a global pollutant and identify critical areas where research is needed to inform policy decisions. They reviewed recent advances in the understanding of mercury release, cycling, bioaccumulation, and health effects. They also identified critical knowledge gaps such as impacts of climate change on mercury cycling and synergistic effects of methylmercury on human health when there is a co-occurance of other contaminants or diseases. The recent implementation of an international treaty by 128 signatory nations to reduce mercury pollution and health risks, makes this a critical time for science to inform global policy.
Chen, C., Driscoll, C.T., Eagles-Smith, C.A., Eckley, C.S., Gay, D., Hsu-Kim, H., Keane, S., Kirk, J., Mason, R., Obrist, D., Selin, H., Selin, N., Thompson, M., 2018, A critical time for mercury science to inform global policy: Environmental Science and Technology, p. online, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b02286
These items are in the RSS feed format (Really Simple Syndication) based on categories such as topics, locations, and more. You can install and RSS reader browser extension, software, or use a third-party service to receive immediate news updates depending on the feed that you have added. If you click the feed links below, they may look strange because they are simply XML code. An RSS reader can easily read this code and push out a notification to you when something new is posted to our site.