Reduction Potential of Anthropogenic Mercury Release in Malaysia

Anthropogenic release of mercury, human exposure and environmental health are important and mercury management policies are required to effect significant change in Malaysia. To provide a useful information to facilitate the creation of strategic management policies for mercury as the Minamata Convention on Mercury is implemented in Malaysia, there is an urgent need to estimate the potential to reduce mercury release by applying different control measures, i.e. simple electrostatic precipitator and mercury-specific filter. Equally urgent is the need to clarify the alleviated environmental burdens from the reduced mercury releases by applying different control measures. Many researches have explored issues in terms of the mercury’ toxicity and the harm of mercury compounds worldwide. A lack of surveys to evaluate both on the reduction potentials and alleviated environmental burdens of mercury releases resulted in anthropogenic sources under different control measures has been observed. This study estimated the potential reduction and alleviation of the environmental burden of anthropogenic mercury released into the natural environment (air, water and land) in Malaysia under three emission control scenarios and identified the potential reductions. A life cycle impact assessment was applied to estimate an alleviated environmental impact under these scenarios. As a result, the environmental burden can be reduced by 77 % by applying the multipollutant emission control measures such as applying mercury-specific filter for coal combustion compared to no emission control measures. At this maximum, the harm to human health can be reduced by 3,730 disability-adjusted loss of life years and the harm to ecosystems can be reduced by 0.16 species/year. This study will assist decision makers to understand the magnitude of changes resulting from different emission control measures.