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Published online 31 August 2001 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news010906-2
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Mercury falling into food chain
Sun, sea and snow bring mercury down to Earth.
Intense cold, sea spray and long dark winters are stripping toxic mercury from the atmosphere and incorporating it in the fragile Arctic food chain where it is accumulating, new research suggests.
The sudden burst of sunlight after long polar winters drives chemicals in sea salt to react with normally inert mercury vapour in the air, depositing it onto snow, Julia Lu and colleagues at the Meteorological Service of Canada and Toronto report1.
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