Heavy Metals in the Ocean Become More Toxic

How Climate Change Impacts Contaminants in the Sea

11-Oct-2024 - Toxic trace elements such as lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium occur naturally in small quantities in coastal seas. However, human activities such as industry and agriculture contribute significantly larger amounts. A new study has examined how climate change is already affecting the ...

Hazardous ingredients in batteries

Trust, but verify! A long and winding road to an innovative method

29-Sep-2023 - Although strict limits exist, old types of batteries can still contain too many hazardous ingredients such as mercury, cadmium and lead. The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) has therefore launched a control campaign. Empa has laid the foundations for this with a novel tailor-made method ...

Widespread illegal trade of hazardous chemicals

Global regulations disregarded

12-Jul-2023 - Researchers from Switzerland and China have studied the global trade in highly hazardous chemicals subject to a global treaty – the Rotterdam Convention. The results are sobering: Nearly half of the total trade volume of these chemicals crosses national borders illegally, calling for strong ...

Catching up with quicksilver: MXene material can counter mercury contamination

Researchers show carboxylated MXene can efficiently treat mercury contaminated water

17-Aug-2022 - Researchers estimate that mercury emissions in the atmosphere have quadrupled since the Industrial Revolution. The heavy metal, generated by burning fossil fuels and the disposal of industrial and medical waste, has become so persistent in aquatic environments that the U.S. Food and Drug ...

How mercury gets into the sea

Chemical fingerprint reveals origin

04-Oct-2021 - Mercury released into the atmosphere by industry enters the sea and from there makes its way into the food chain. Now, an analysis by the University of Basel has revealed how the harmful substance enters seawater in the first place. This is not primarily via rainfall, as previously assumed, but ...

22 hazardous chemicals added to EU regulation on imports and exports

27-Jul-2020 - Exporters of the substances now have to notify their designated national authority before exporting them. In most cases, consent from the importing country is also needed. In addition, exports from the EU of a series of mercury-containing articles, such as fluorescent lamps, have also been ...

Removing toxic mercury from contaminated water

22-Nov-2018 - Water which has been contaminated with mercury and other toxic heavy metals is a major cause of environmental damage and health problems worldwide. Now, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, present a totally new way to clean contaminated water, through an electrochemical ...

Phenyl addition made a poison useful for a chemical reaction in catalysis

20-Nov-2018 - Scientists from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), Japan, have discovered that a catalyst poison, which deactivates homogeneous catalysts, can be "reborn" as an efficient ligand by introduction of a substituent, in chemical reactions. This finding is of service to expand the ...

Disproving the universal nature of the mercury test

Mercury test of catalysts that has been considered universal for 100 years seems to be ambiguous

26-Oct-2018 - The mercury test of catalysts that has been used and considered universal for 100 years, turned out to be ambiguous. This conclusion was made by a group of scientists including a RUDN chemist. The group confirmed that the test required additional control experiments to verify its results. The ...

Diatom ooze sediments are a large marine mercury sink

Sediments reveal mercury pollution in Antarctica since the beginning of the industrial period

30-Jul-2018 - Mercury has been used and released by humans by multiple processes such as gold and silver mining and emissions of mercury to the atmosphere by coal burning, to name the most important ones. These processes have caused strong enrichment of mercury in the environment especially in aquatic systems. ...