Study warns of mercury in Arctic @BreakingScience

>===> Study warns of mercury in Arctic <===< http://t.co/op6nuv3 via @BreakingScience


http://www.physorg.com/

This is a Thursday, July 10, 2008 file photo of a polar bear as it walks along the ice flow in Baffin Bay above the Arctic circle as seen from the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent. Global mercury emissions could grow by 25 percent by 2020, if no action is taken to control them, posing a threat to polar bears, whales and seals and the Arctic communities who hunt them for food, an authoritative international study says.(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward, File)

Global mercury emissions could grow by 25 percent by 2020 if no action is taken to control them, posing a threat to polar bears, whales and seals and the Arctic communities who hunt those animals for food, an authoritative international study says.

Ads by Google

The assessment by a scientific body set up by the eight Arctic rim countries also warns that climate change may worsen the problem, by releasing mercury stored for thousands of years in permafrost or promoting chemical processes that transform the substance into a more toxic form.

"It is of particular concern that mercury levels are continuing to rise in some Arctic species in large areas of the Arctic," despite emissions reductions in nearby regions like Europe, North America and Russia, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, or AMAP, said.

Emissions have increased in other parts of the world, primarily in China, which is now the No. 1 mercury polluter, accounting for nearly half of total emissions, AMAP said.