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Inventory of North American Hg Emissions to the Atmosphere

Relationship To The global Mercury Cycle

  • Chapter
Global and Regional Mercury Cycles: Sources, Fluxes and Mass Balances

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASEN2,volume 21))

Abstract

Looking at emission quantities of chemicals is useful for an initial comparison of sources, but such a comparison does not relate linearly to health risk to human and non-human populations, but is a key input for risk assessment. Accurate emissions data are just now becoming available in the US for the trace element, mercury (Hg). We can use these emissions estimates to constrain risk assessments, to bound emissions for countries which lack data, and to further constrain the global cycle. Two parts of the equation remain highly uncertain: the amount of emitted Hg that participates in the global cycle and the quantification of natural sources; the latter is our greatest research need.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electric Power Research Institute, 3412 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA

    D. B. Porcella, P. Chu & M. A. Allan

Authors
  1. D. B. Porcella
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  2. P. Chu
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  3. M. A. Allan
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Analytical Chemistry, Free University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Willy Baeyens

  2. GKSS Forschungszentrum Geesthacht Gmbh, Max Planckstaβe 1, 21502, Geesthacht, Germany

    Ralf Ebinghaus

  3. Institute for Water and Environmental Problems, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 105 Papaninsev Street, 65099, Barnaul, Russia

    Oleg Vasiliev

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© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Porcella, D.B., Chu, P., Allan, M.A. (1996). Inventory of North American Hg Emissions to the Atmosphere. In: Baeyens, W., Ebinghaus, R., Vasiliev, O. (eds) Global and Regional Mercury Cycles: Sources, Fluxes and Mass Balances. NATO ASI Series, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1780-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1780-4_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7295-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1780-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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