Host: Japan Society of Material Cycles and Waste Management
According to emerging concerns of mercury toxicity and international efforts to reduce mercury applications, the recovery and long-term safe disposal of unused mercury is requested. This study focuses on a scenario that mercury was landfilled as HgS, leached to outer environment, and thus reached to human exposure. Mercury environmental fate model was built to evaluate environmental risk of mercury disposal in landfill sites. Parameter sensitivity analysis was conducted to find significant parameters for simulation results. This analysis suggested that percolation flow rate in a landfill site, representative length of semi-closed water area (lake or sea), distribution constant of methylmercury, methylation/demethylation rate coefficient in the sediment, bio-magnification factor of methylmercury were effective. Therefore, this study concluded that it is necessary and effective to verify site-specific values of these parameters for reliable environmental risk assessment of mercury disposal.
