Monitoring mercury vapor near pollution sites

Field and laboratory measurements were made to demonstrate that mercury vapor in the air near mercury-polluted water or sediment can be detected using an extremely sensitive detector, the Barringer Airborne Mercury Spectrometer. Areas were visited where the presence of mercury was known from fish, water, or sediment analyses; anomalous mercury levels ranging from 50 to more than 20,000 nanograms per cubic meter were detected. Anomalous concentrations of atomic mercury vapor in air may be classified as natural or man-made. Laboratory studies demonstrated that the mercury spectrometer is sensitive only to atomic mercury. By means of pyrolysis or combustion, organic compounds could be detected. To detect mercury pollution in water, pyrolysis appears necessary to convert combined mercury to the atomic state for measurement by rapid spectrophotometric techniques.