We measured mercury (Hg) isotope ratios in sediments and various estuarine organisms (green crab, blue mussel, killifish, eider) to investigate methylmercury (MMHg) sources and exposure pathways in five Northeast coast (U.S.) estuaries. The mass independent Hg isotopic compositions (MIF; Δ(199)Hg) of the sediments were linearly correlated with the sediment 1/Hg concentrations (Δ(199)Hg: r(2) = ...

Extending previous trophic transfer studies of the mercury-contaminated South River watershed, predictive models were built for mercury biomagnification in floodplain food webs at two more locations (North Park and Grand Cavern). Four of five models built to date based on methylmercury and δ(15)N met the a priori requirement for useful prediction (prediction r(2)≈0.80). An additional factor inc...

Bacterial resistance to mercury compounds (mercurials) is mediated by proteins encoded by mercury resistance (mer) operons. Six merE variants with site-directed mutations were constructed to investigate the roles of the cysteine and histidine residues in MerE protein during mercurial transport. By comparison of mercurial uptake by the cell with intact and/or variant MerE, we showed that the cys...

Mercury is a global pollutant of public environmental health concern due to its long-range atmospheric distribution, environmental distribution, and neurotoxic effects. Following biological methylation, methylmercury (MeHg) can be un-evenly bioaccumulated within aquatic food chains. Fish consumption can be a significant route of human exposure to MeHg. MeHg exposure in the prenatal stage, at re...

In recent years, the Coastal Water Research Project has conducted surveys of the distribution of certain trace substances in sediments around the major municipal wastewater outfalls off southern California. Because of high levels of heavy metals found in sediments near Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts outfall system off Whites Point in 1970, detailed surveys of the Palos Verdes shelf wer...

For many years, atmospheric mercury has been perceived as a global pollutant. Transport of mercury compounds in the atmosphere and its deposition on the earth's surface is an important issue that requires knowledge regarding the circulation of the various forms of this metal between environmental components. There are many numerical models that can be used to study and image this phenomenon. Th...

Owing to the toxicity of mercury in the environment, the determination of trace amounts of mercury has attracted great attention. I 32 The conventional technique of dithizone extraction is not always favoured because the procedure is cumbersome, sensitive to light and is subject to interferences from other metal ions.3 Analytical methods based on ternary complex formation seem to offer superior...

In the past decades, gas discharge lamps have gained widespread use in industrial applications. Due to their unique design properties concerning spectral, electrical and geometrical features, all types of gas discharge lamps can been found in technical applications. Mercury based lamps are the workhorses in many applications upgraded by their relatives, the metal halide versions. The low and me...

Two organomercury haptens were synthesized via the classical oxymercuration reaction. An intramolecular oxymercuration reaction was the strategy employed to prepare a structurally simple, but chemically robust, organomercury hapten that was conjugated to chicken immunoglobulin G (IgG). The resulting immunogen afforded mouse anti-mercury antibodies that were evaluated in an enzyme-linked immunos...