Mercury Stories by Henrik Selin

Author:Henrik Selin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mercury; Sustainability; Minamata; Sustainability science; systems; interactions; interventions; system analysis; transitions; governance; coupled human-natural systems; social-environmental systems; Biogeochemical cycling; Minamata Convention; Pollution; Global change; Life-cycle analysis; Methylmercury; Human health; Pollution exposure; Medicine; Occupational health; History of medicine; Dental amalgam; Vaccination; Emissions; Coal; Air pollution; Energy; Best available technology (BAT); Fossil fuels; Products and processes; Innovation; Waste; Contaminated sites; Industry; Technology; Chemicals; Chlor-alkali; Batteries; Light bulbs; Gold; Artisanal and small-scale gold mining; ASGM; Mining; Certification schemes; Sustainable livelihoods; citizen action; stakeholders
Publisher: MIT Press

Insights

The story of the mercury-based thermometer at the beginning of this chapter shows that even a single product is part of a system in which mercury connects with issues of human well-being, prosperity, industrial production, technological change, and legacy contamination. In this section, we examine insights from the products and processes system for mercury. First, the use and presence of mercury in products and processes has varied over space and time, with different drivers and consequences. Second, mercury has both benefited and detracted from human well-being, and technological change as well as government intervention have driven gradual transitions toward mercury-free alternatives. Third, cross-scale actions by governments and the private sector occurred simultaneously, showing the complex nature of designing effective interventions.

Systems Analysis for Sustainability

The unique physical properties of mercury intersected with technology development, economic factors, and concerns about environmental and human health damages to drive changes in the use of mercury in products and processes. Mercury use at times decreased in some sectors while it increased in others. For example, mercury use was phased out in mirror and hat making around the same time it began and expanded in battery and light bulb production. The continuing availability of mercury mined from cinnabar facilitated its growing use in products and processes, and industrialization dramatically increased its use as a combined result of technological innovations and growing consumer demand for new mercury-containing products and goods made using mercury. Much of this mercury was eventually discharged into the environment, and the application of mercury-treated pesticides added to this environmental burden. Local and national governments increasingly adopted standards and laws controlling mercury uses based on growing concerns about the environmental and human health impacts of mercury in the late 1900s. Advances in scientific and technical knowledge made it possible to switch to mercury-free alternatives for major products and processes.

The products and processes system for mercury has been able to continue to provide societal benefits from goods and industrial manufacturing while gradually reducing its reliance on mercury-based technology. Development of new techniques allowed producers to adapt to mercury phaseouts, some of which were prompted by government mandates. Mercury-free mirrors, pesticides, thermometers, batteries, and light bulbs have continued to provide important societal benefits, and the chemicals industry has found ways to keep manufacturing high-volume chemicals by using mercury-free production processes. In contrast, many environmental components have much more limited capacity to change once mercury has entered ecosystems. Contaminated sites and landfills that contain high levels of mercury can continue to cause local harm to wildlife and people for decades to centuries. Effective cleanup of such sites is both very expensive and technically complicated. Some discharged mercury from products and processes adds to the global environmental cycling of mercury; this cycling continues for a long time and is difficult to alter.

Mercury has been ubiquitous in global commerce, and its use, environmental presence, and behavior in particular places have influenced its effects on ecosystems and human well-being. Relatively small amounts of discharges, compared to the global use of mercury, can have severe negative impacts on the environment and human health in particular places.

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