Mercury and Its Associated Impacts on Environment and Human Health: A Review (original) (raw)

Mercury is one of the most toxic elements and a threat to wildlife because it accumulates and magnifies to unsafe levels in aquatic food chains (Munthe et al., 2007). It is rapidly transformed by microorganisms into organic compounds that tend to bioaccumulate and biomagnify in animals (Ronchetti et al., 2006). All mercury species are toxic, with organic mercury compounds generally being more toxic than inorganic species. Because of its high bioaccumulation, mercury concentrations escalate up the food chain and for example, predatory fish can have up to 106 times higher mercury concentrations than the ambient water (Joint FAO/WHO, 2006). The organic form of mercury is most toxic as it passes the blood-brain barrier owing to its lipid solubility. So the primary route of exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) for humans is consumption of fish (Habiba et al., 2017). Since the beginning of the industry, anthropogenic activities like increased mining, high rate of fossil-fuel burning, wide spr...