Mercury and Mercury Species in Air and Emissions

Atmospheric mercury from emission and combustion sources, as well as natural sources such as volcanic activity and wildfires, are large contributors of the mercury in the environment.  In addition, elemental mercury use in chemical processes can contribute to mercury found in air.  Due to the tendency of MeHg to bioaccumulate in the environment, extremely low concentrations of mercury can have a large impact and elemental and volatile mercury species (such as dimethyl mercury) can be hazardous due their the inhalation risk.

Mercury air sampling efforts have likely used NIOSH 6009, however, the media used for NIOSH 6009 (hopcalite or curalite) may not have a low enough mercury background making it difficult to determine low concentrations in air and soil gas. This scenario, should it occur, can generate false positive and negative results due to varying background of the mercury on the un-sampled NIOSH sorbent.  Another important consideration is that soil gas monitoring requires what are considered to be a very low flow rates (0.1- 0.2 slpm) and relatively short sampling times and therefore a limited sample volume that further challenges the use of the NIOSH 6009 and standard mercury analysis methods.

Eurofins has developed and offers very low concentration mercury and dimethyl mercury measurements in soil gas, air, and emission sources, allowing for accurate monitoring even with low sample rates.    Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.