Mercury Pollution in Mercury Mining Areas Throughout the World:An Overview

Mercury is known as a toxic and non-indispensable element for human beings.A number of large-sized mercury mines in the world have been abandoned recently,because of extensive attention to the toxicity of mercury and increased environmental concern.Serious mercury contamination of the local environment in the mercury mining areas throughout the world has resulted from a long history of large-scale mining and smelting activities.This paper was designed to overview the distribution of mercury mines,mercury production in the world and related environmental effects,which are represented by mine-waste discharge,mercury pollution of water,air,soil and food in the mercury mining areas.