title: Rapid monitoring of mercury in air from an organic chemical factory in China using a portable mercury analyzer.
abstract: A chemical factory, using a production technology of acetaldehyde with mercury catalysis, was located southeast of Qingzhen City in Guizhou Province, China. Previous research showed heavy mercury pollution through an extensive downstream area. A current investigation of the mercury distribution in ambient air, soils, and plants suggests that mobile mercury species in soils created elevated mercury concentrations in ambient air and vegetation. Mercury concentrations of up to 600 ng/m(3) in air over the contaminated area provided evidence of the mercury transformation to volatile Hg(0). Mercury analysis of soil and plant samples demonstrated that the mercury concentrations in soil with vaporized and plant-absorbable forms were higher in the southern area, which was closer to the factory. Our results suggest that air monitoring using a portable mercury analyzer can be a convenient and useful method for the rapid detection and mapping of mercury pollution in advanced field surveys.
authors: Kumamoto University Graduate School of Science and Technology, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan. yasutake@kumamoto-u.ac.jp
authors: Akira
authors: A
authors: Yasutake
authors: Jin Ping
authors: JP
authors: Cheng
authors: Masako
authors: M
authors: Kiyono
authors: Shimpei
authors: S
authors: Uraguchi
authors: Xiaojie
authors: X
authors: Liu
authors: Kyoko
authors: K
authors: Miura
authors: Yoshiaki
authors: Y
authors: Yasuda
authors: Nikolay
authors: N
authors: Mashyanov
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D002617:Chemical Industry; D002681:China; D004864:Equipment and Supplies; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D008628:Mercury