Mercury is a global threat to human and environmental health. This report, focusing on anthropogenic emissions of mercury and their transport and transformation in the environment, is a contribution to international efforts to reduce mercury pollution.
The report provides the most recent information available on worldwide atmospheric mercury emissions, releases to the aquatic environment, and the transport and fate of mercury in the global environment. The report emphasizes emissions to air from human (anthropogenic) activities, but includes releases to water because the aquatic environment is the main route of exposure to humans and wildlife. It is in aquatic systems that the inorganic mercury is transformed into the more toxic form, methylmercury, which can accumulate in fish and marine mammals consumed by humans.
This Executive Summary presents an overview of the key findings of the Global Mercury Assessment 2013.
