Nakagawa R, Hiromoto M
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiba University, Japan.
Chemosphere. 1997 Feb;34(4):801-6. doi: 10.1016/s0045-6535(97)00008-8.
Concentrations of total atmospheric mercury were determined in air collected from several locations in Japan and neighbouring countries to elucidate the geographical distribution and the background levels of total mercury in environmental air. The concentrations of mercury in urban air in Japan were 2.3-67 ng/m3, mean value 11.2 ng/m3. Those values were higher relative to those in urban air of other countries around Japan. In the past, a large quantity of mercury was used as an agricultural fungicide and a chloralkali catalyst in Japan. Therefore, the concentrations of mercury in rural air were higher rather than those in urban air. This phenomenon supports the hypothesis that the residual mercury used in the paddy field in the 1970s still remains in soils of Japan.
为了阐明环境空气中总汞的地理分布和背景水平，对从日本及周边国家几个地点采集的空气样本中的总大气汞浓度进行了测定。日本城市空气中汞的浓度为2.3 - 67纳克/立方米，平均值为11.2纳克/立方米。与日本周边其他国家的城市空气相比，这些数值更高。过去，日本大量使用汞作为农业杀菌剂和氯碱催化剂。因此，农村空气中汞的浓度高于城市空气中汞的浓度。这一现象支持了这样一种假设，即20世纪70年代稻田中使用的残留汞仍残留在日本的土壤中。
