Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
mental integrity. His energy was exactly what was needed to help develop UNEP partner-
ships for action on major mercury sources, such as the burning of coal. This was often
for example, India, Russia and China. He also played a key role in preparing the Global
Mercury Assessment, much of which was delivered through a joint AMAP/UNEP collab-
oration.
By the time the negotiations began in 2010, we had learned a good deal more about
mercury contamination in the Arctic and especially about the potential for lasting effects
to children exposed in the womb. In 2011, AMAP took the opportunity to publish (in the
midst of the negotiations) a major assessment report devoted to mercury in the Arctic. It
was perfect timing for maximum impact. Here is a quick look at what the AMAP assess-
ment report had to say about two of the issues related to mercury and human health in the
Arctic.
Firstly, the subtle neurological effects of prenatal exposure to mercury in the Faroese
cohort of children detected when the children were seven years old were still present when
the children were 14. Using the same family of tests employed when the children were age
seven, reports by Weihe, Grandjean and their colleagues found that prenatal methylmer-
cury exposure was statistically correlated with deficits in domains of language, attention,
memory and auditory and visual brain processing. Postnatal methylmercury exposure had
nodiscernible effect. Olivier Boucher andcolleagues whostudied acohort ofInuit children
from Nunavik in Arctic Québec have reported somewhat similar behavioural results. In pa-
pers published in 2010 and 2012, they reported that mercury concentrations in umbilical
cord blood even below 10 micrograms per litre could be associated with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-like symptoms at about 11 years of age.
Secondly, chronic exposure to mercury through diet has also been linked by studies
from northern Finland to an increased risk to the cardiovascular system, including hyper-
tension in adults. However, Inuit (who do not live in Finland) consume very high concen-
trations of mercury in their diet but historically have experienced very low mortality from
cardiovascular disease. One explanation for this discrepancy may be that the high levels of
Search WWH ::
Custom Search