The English-Wabigoon River system in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, was one of the most heavily mercury-contaminated waterways in the world due to historical discharges in the 1960s from a chlor-alkali plant. This study examines long-term (1970-2010) monitoring data to assess temporal trends in mercury contamination in Walleye, Northern Pike and Lake Whitefish, three species important for sport ...

We present here a critical review of several technologically important electrocatalytic systems operating in alkaline electrolytes. These include the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) occurring on catalysts containing Pt, Pd, Ir, Ru, or Ag, the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) occurring on Pt-containing catalysts, and the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) occurring on Ni-Co-Fe alloy catalysts. Ea...

The EU Directive 1999/77/EC, prohibiting new applications of chrysotile, exempted diaphragms used in electrolysis to produce chorine and caustic soda in existing chlor-alkali plants until they reach the end of their service life, or until suitable asbestos-free substitutes become available, whichever is sooner. There is no technical justification for extending this exemption after January 2008,...

The cerebral effect of long term (mean 15.6, SD 8.9 years) and low (about 25 micrograms/m3 air) exposure to mercury vapour was studied in a group of 41 workers in a chlor-alkali plant and in a group of matched referents by electroencephalography (EEG). In the visually interpreted EEGs only a tendency for an increased number of EEG abnormalities, especially focal ones, could be seen in the expos...

Continuous measurements of total gaseous mercury (TGM) at an urban background station in Helsinki, Finland, were performed in 2006–2007. Additionally, a one-month campaign to measure TGM continuously from a moving car was organized in 2007, when several cities and industrial areas around Finland were surveyed. In Helsinki, a one-year average of 1.54 ± 0.20 ng m–3 was measured, which is about th...

A growing body of research points to the fact that capital markets react to environmental news and thus create incentives for pollution control in both developed and emerging market economies. In this paper we conduct an event study to examine the impact of environmental rating of large pulp and paper, auto and chlor alkali firms on their stock prices. We find that the market generally penalize...

Sequential extraction of Hg was performed in a core collected from intertidal area in Ulhas Estuary in order to characterize the downward distribution and diagenetic behavior of Hg in a polluted estuary. Concentration of total Hg ranged between 0.46 and 6.40 microg g(-1) with significant decrease in surficial sediment as a result of closing of two Hg-cell based chlor-alkali plants. Results of s...