ACAP webinar on Mercury and its combined effects with other contaminants on health and ecosystem
Reported by Koyomi NAKAZAWA (Fukuoka Institute of Technology）
Related research program: Land
ACAP webinar on Mercury and its combined effects with other contaminants on health and ecosystem was held on September 20, 2020. This webinar consisted of workshop and activity reports by AMAP.
In the workshop, problems caused by Dioxin and Mercury and grasping and action for the solution of contamination problem caused by abandoned chemical plants in Russia were introduced by POPs and Mercury expert group of ACAP. The outreach activity which was collaborated with AMAP to various stakeholders and risk assessment-decrease-action plan in the Arctic which were reviewed in 2019 was also reported.
In the activity report of AMAP, the Flagship on Hazardous Substances Center reported that the production and consumption of chemical substances in the world in the last 10 years had almost doubled and siloxanes as a risk of new chemical substances attracted attention. Its risk assessment is currently carried out in REACH. Furthermore, the discussion of the framework of the risk governance system for the Arctic chemicals and climate change, the growing interest in microplastics, especially in easy ocean outflow of rubber powder were reported. The Arc Risk Project reported that the development of projects focusing on rivers in Russia and Canada, which were one of the sources of mercury in the Arctic environment. The Mercury Inventory 2017 by the Russian Federation was also introduced.
In addition, the Russia’s Work on Mercury reported on Pops and Mercury pollution at chemical plants in Irkutsk, and the impact of mercury flows into the basin in areas submerged by the construction of hydroelectric dams as a result of research on the aquatic ecosystem of the Arctic in Canada.
The United States reported the results of analysis of PAHs by using atmospheric models such as GEOS-Chem, and Canada reported the policy was being promoted with an emphasis on mercury monitoring, risk management, risk communication, and international cooperation as the amount of mercury was increasing due to long-distance crossing of borders transportation and climate change in the Arctic and the Great Lakes area, although the mercury exposure of the entire country was decreasing.