Mercury in the Caribbean
By Dr. Bill McGraw
Boquete, Panama
The Caribbean
islands of Jamaica and St. Kitts and Nevis have supported the
reduction of mercury pollution in the environment. This is
considerably important considering the main source of protein on the
islands is seafood. Seafood consumption and mercury amalgam fillings
are the two biggest sources of mercury ingestion into the human body
overall. The elimination of mercury from the human body once it is
chronically stored in the tissues of the kidney, liver and brain is
incredibly difficult, making avoiding mercury the only practical
approach to avoid mercury toxicity.
The main source
of mercury pollution in Jamaica is the aluminum refining industry
which contributes about 4.5 tons of mercury into the environment
every year. Meanwhile St. Kitts and Nevis have 87% of their mercury
coming from the disposal of consumer goods such as fluorescent light
bulbs which contains at least 10 mg of mercury per bulb. St Lucia
Island also reported that 70% of their mercury pollution comes from
the disposal of mercury containing consumer products. Conversely,
Trinidad and Tobago has 75% of their mercury output associated with
the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Added together, Trinidad
and Tobago and Jamaica contribute about 9.3 tons of mercury into the
environment every year. This would be about 8% of what the entire
United States produces annually. Fortunately, the islands of Jamaica
and St. Kitts and Nevis are committed to following the
recommendations of the Minimata Convention, which involves limiting
the use of mercury, reducing the importation of mercury containing
products and installing modern pollution control devices where
necessary to reduce mercury emissions.
Yet there is
still more to the story here. Due to the direction of ocean currents
from Central and South America, the Caribbean Islands receive
pollution from other countries. During the period of 1550 to the
present day about 260,000 tons of mercury was lost to the environment
in Central America through the use in mining for Gold and Silver.
Most of this mercury was actually imported from Europe during the
colonial invasion of these areas and used in removing these precious
metals from raw ores through amalgamation. Mercury has been measured
in adjacent agricultural soils near gold mining areas 200 years after
all mercury use in gold mining was discontinued.
Mercury released
into streams during gold processing and emitted into the air during
heating or “roasting” of gold-mercury amalgams gets bound and
recycled in the local environment. Elemental mercury, like the type
used in gold mining for amalgamation, is transformed in anaerobic
soils and sediments of streams and wetlands into the more toxic
organic type known as methyl mercury. This organic form of mercury
then binds to the sulfur which is found in proteins which can be
found in all life forms. As mercury accumulates in living tissue, it
recycles from one trophic level to another and is continually
recycled from one area to another. This happens as living things are
continually being created and destroyed. It is estimated that it can
take more than 1000 years for a mercury polluted environment to be
returned to normal due to mercury’s binding, accumulating and
recycling properties. Therefore, the only logical approach to mercury
toxicity is to exclude its use in industry and avoidance of ingestion
in the human body.
For the full
story check out my book I release on Amazon
Sources of Information Used for this Article:
https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/energy/assets/pdfs/cctr/outreach/Basics2-Mercury-Mar07.pdf
Published April 7, 2019
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