Human activities cause mercury pollution of water bodies, mainly from chlor-alkali, plastics, batteries, electronics and other industrial emissions of wastewater and waste medical equipment. It is estimated that from 1970 to 1979, the total amount of mercury discharged directly to water bodies around the world due to human activities is about 1.6 million tons; the total amount of mercury discharged to the atmosphere reaches about 100,000 tons; the total amount of mercury discharged into the soil is about 100,000 tons, and the discharged to the atmosphere and the soil will be returned to the water body with the water cycle.
Because mercury is distributed in the atmosphere, soil and water under natural background conditions, the migration of mercury also occurs between land, water and air. Atmospheric mercury in gaseous and particulate form is dispersed with the wind, and part of it falls to the ground or water bodies through wet or dry deposition. Mercury in the soil can be volatilized into the atmosphere, or it can be washed by precipitation into surface water and infiltrate into groundwater. Some of the mercury in surface water enters the atmosphere through volatilization, while most of it settles into the sediment. Mercury in the sediment, in whatever form, is converted directly or indirectly by microorganisms to methylmercury or dimethylmercury. Dimethylmercury can be broken down to methylmercury under acidic conditions. Methylmercury is soluble in water and therefore returns from the substrate to the water. Methylmercury ingested by aquatic organisms can accumulate in the body and be continuously enriched through the food chain. The concentration of methylmercury in fish in mercury-contaminated water can be tens of thousands of times higher than in water, endangering fish and jeopardizing the human body through the food chain.
Energy-saving lamps and fluorescent lamps
"China, as the country with the largest amount of global mercury use and emissions, faces enormous pressure to reduce mercury emissions in the negotiation of the 'Global Mercury Instrument'." Kan Xiaodong, an associate researcher at the Chemicals Registration Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, revealed that in July 2012, the fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was held. Representatives further negotiated the draft of a legally binding global mercury convention (the "global mercury instrument"), and cutting the supply of mercury, reducing the demand for mercury in products and processes, and reducing international trade in mercury remained key areas of focus during the negotiations.
In the energy-saving lamps gradually replace incandescent lamps to become the trend, energy-saving lamps mercury pollution triggered the concern of all parties in society. Senior experts in the industry said that the fine diameter of the T5, T8 and other straight fluorescent lamps and ring fluorescent lamps due to the use of manual mercury injection process, it is more likely that the mercury content exceeds the standard. Experts from the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) said that the MEP is planning to formulate a policy to strengthen the prevention and control of mercury pollution in mercury-added products and related industries, and it is proposed to prohibit the approval of new construction, alteration and expansion projects for the production of fluorescent lamps using liquid mercury and manual mercury injection.
The luminous principle of energy-saving lamps is that mercury vapor is excited to emit light, so every energy-saving lamp contains mercury. Even according to the latest European environmental standards, the mercury content of an energy-saving lamp is about 3 - 5 milligrams. Once broken, only 3 milligrams will pollute about 1,000 tons of water and 300 cubic meters of air!
China's annual consumption of energy-saving lamps is up to 800 million, with the worldwide abolition of incandescent lamps, energy-saving lamps production will increase dramatically. It is expected that in 2015 or so, the annual demand for energy-saving lamps in the Chinese market alone can reach about 2 billion. According to expert forecasts, even according to 5 million abandoned lamps in half of the mercury waste can be leached into the ground down calculations, but also the formation of about 450 million tons of water pollution potential per year, this figure is far more than the total amount of water used by all families in Beijing a year. Then, 2 billion sticks is equivalent to about 180 billion tons of water pollution potential per year, equivalent to pollution 400 scale equivalent to the total amount of water used by all families in Beijing city for a year.
According to the State Council issued a comprehensive work program of energy saving and emission reduction, the National Development and Reform Commission is actively implementing the "green lighting" project, through financial subsidies to the national promotion of high-efficiency lighting products 150 million. According to forecasts, after the implementation of this project, the country can save a total of 29 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, less emission of 29 million tons of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide 290,000 tons. However, if the 150 million energy-saving lamps are not taken into account the aftermath of the work, allowing users to discard at will, which means that there will be dozens of tons of mercury into the natural environment, theoretically, will contaminate 27 billion tons of water resources, while the world's easy access to fresh water is only 300 billion tons. If you add the collateral damage to the atmosphere, soil, flora and fauna, it's not easy to calculate the ultimate gain or loss of this project.
To add insult to injury, in the country vigorously publicize the promotion of energy-saving lamps products in the background, a large number of indiscriminate low-quality energy-saving lamps hitchhiking flooded the market, resulting in disruption of the market, waste of energy, and aggravate the multiple hazards of pollution. In recent years, energy-saving lamps have been burdened with "saving electricity does not save money" notoriety, the main reason is the low quality of energy-saving lamps on the market. 2010 New Year's Day before and after the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Quality Supervision carried out a energy-saving lamps products market sampling, the results show that nearly 80% unqualified. And the same period in Hubei Province, the release of the sampling results show that the local market energy-saving lamp products qualified rate of only 33.3%. People know, poor quality energy-saving lamp life is very short, so the elimination rate is greatly increased, which means that the number of waste energy-saving lamps into the environment to increase the number of mercury pollution is also aggravated.
Originally, the energy-saving lamps have been pinned on the good hope, but to bear a heavy environmental debt, which is really embarrassing. Precisely because of the environmental protection of energy-saving lamps neglect, the establishment of waste energy-saving lamps professional recycling organizations, safe and harmless treatment of its work has been no one to do. Responsible for the promotion of energy-saving lamps around the economic and trade departments, most of them do not have on the waste energy-saving lamps recycling program, mainly because there is no practical recovery methods.
Energy-saving lamps have been widely promoted by the government as an effective means of saving energy and reducing emissions. China has announced the termination of the production of incandescent lamps in 2012. However, we must be aware of the hidden danger behind the energy-saving lamps, the recycling of waste energy-saving lamps can not be delayed, only the integration of resources from all walks of life may be effective in preventing the mercury pollution of waste energy-saving lamps. Shenzhen as a low-carbon demonstration area, in order to call on the majority of people can *** with the city to join the mercury prevention and treatment of waste energy-saving lamps, the pilot implementation of the "rent a lamp - recycling" - "deposit rental Door-to-door service - environmental protection recovery" of energy-saving lamps "only 'rent' not sell" environmental protection mode, the promotion of energy-saving lamps and energy-saving lamps mercury pollution bundled with the implementation of the actual, avoiding the "development first, the environmental protection of energy-saving lamps", "the environmental protection of energy-saving lamps". Avoid the "first development, after the governance" of the road.
Disposal of broken energy-saving lamps
As a customer, the only time you can come into contact with mercury is when the lamp is cracked or broken. If this happens, minimize your exposure to mercury according to the following rules:
Don't panic. Remember that the amount of mercury in fluorescent lamps is very small .
Be careful not to cut yourself with shards of glass. If the lamp was broken in a lighting situation, make sure the power is off to avoid the risk of electrocution. Collect the shards and sweep them together if possible.
Remove shards with a manageable towel or tape.
Use a vacuum cleaner only if there is no way to treat the floor (e.g., a blanket). Then dispose of the vacuum bag containing the debris cleaner. Then put the debris in the vacuum bag in a garbage bag and take it from the house to the countryside.
Aerate the room.
Please dispose of broken and malfunctioning lights properly.
Medical devices
Mercury products have long been a part of people's lives. For example, a small electric switch, batteries, fluorescent lamps, parts of computers, some measuring instruments, mercury thermometers, blood pressure monitors and other medical devices, as well as dental amalgam widely used and so on. According to relevant information, although mercury used in the health care sector is not the most important source of global anthropogenic mercury releases, these mercury-containing instruments and devices, due to their high level of contact with people's daily lives and their tendency to be overlooked by all sectors, have become a source of mercury pollution that deserves close attention.
According to the statistics of China Medical Devices Industry Association, China produces about 120 million mercury-filled thermometers every year, and according to the calculation of 1g of mercury per unit, only this one, the annual amount of mercury can reach 120 tons. If the mercury sphygmomanometer is also taken into account, the total amount of mercury consumed in the field of health care in China is very alarming.
It is conceivable that if these mercury-containing devices are accidentally broken, without precautionary measures, they will cause direct harm to people's health; moreover, if they are not managed properly, mercury emissions will flow into the environment in the form of incineration, solid waste or wastewater, causing harm to the local area and even to a larger region.
However, public awareness of the consequences of mercury pollution and its self-protection is still very low. According to a questionnaire survey of nurses in a hospital, 6% of the nurses thought that there was no need to deal with the leaking mercury; 52% of the nurses poured out the leaking mercury; 3% of the nurses thought that the mercury droplets were fun and once touched the droplets with their hands; 27% of the nurses poured out the leaking mercury into the garbage cans; 4% of the nurses poured the leaking mercury into the sewage drain; and 8% of the nurses injected the mercury back into their sphygmomanometers after sucking them out with syringes.