The 9th ICMGP, a conference where the mercury concerns of the developed and developing worlds will meet. The International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP), held periodically for over 18 years, has become the preeminent international forum for formal presentation and discussion of scientific advances concerning environmental mercury.
The depth, breadth, and pace of scientific discoveries on the sources,
environmental transport and fate, biogeochemical cycling, and adverse
effects of mercury have increased enormously since the inaugural
conference was convened in Sweden in 1990. Along with their rapid
economic growths, countries such as China, India and Brazil have become
major mercury emitters in the world and as such have drawn more and
more attention of the scientific community as well as national
governments.
The public health problems that
developing countries are now facing regarding mercury exposure, as a
sole actor or in combination with other environmental toxicants,
outweigh those posed earlier to developed nations. To date, however,
most studies regarding mercury cycling in the environment and its
health impacts have been conducted in the developed world. Although the
scientific outcomes from these studies will benefit understanding in
the developing world, the particular application of this knowledge base
to the developing countries must rely on local and regional studies
still to emerge.
The 9th ICMGP will thus present a timely opportunity to stimulate and
universalize the scientific studies on mercury as a global pollutant.
Some of the emerging and compelling mercury issues that will be discussed at the 9th ICMGP
- Energy production and mercury emissions
- Sources, emissions and inventories
- Energy production and mercury emissions (mercury and coal)
- Life cycle analysis of mercury in coal, gas, oil, PVC productions and cement production
- Pollution control and recovery
- Clean technology
- Mercury at the interfaces (air- snow; air-soil; air-water)
- Climate change and mercury cycling
- Mercury in aerosols and clouds
- Atmospheric transport and deposition
- Local, regional and global scale modeling
- Mercury in polar regions
- Mercury in urban areas (air and water)
- Impacts of mining (gold mining, mercury mining; small scale mining)
- Mercury in products (dental amalgams)
- Assessment, management and remediation of contaminated sites
- Health effects (synergy of mercury and other contaminants; Selenium
and mercury; exposure assessment; Susceptibility and sensitivity)
- Ecotoxicology of methylmercury (bio-monitoring)
- Environmental monitoring and assessment
- Advances in analytical chemistry
- Environmental biogeochemistry
- Bioaccumulation and trophic transfer
- Fisheries (Fish, tissue testing, sources of fish, fish consumption advisory)
- Mercury in aquatic systems (DOC, organic macro molecules)
- Watershed processes
- Societal and Socioeconomic effects of mercury pollution Environmental justice
- Integration of science and policy
- Risk communication and public education
- Ecosystem sensitivities and human-wildlife vulnerability
