Scientists studying how mercury pollution affects Florida's environment say mercury levels in many rivers and lakes have yet to be measured.
With extensive wetlands, waterways and more than 7,000 lakes, Florida remains a vulnerable target of the poisonous metal, experts say. How mercury is absorbed into the tissue or flesh of livings things in these watery environments in well-documented but concrete details still elude the researchers, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Sunday.
Researchers are trying to determine exactly where the mercury comes from and why the state's environments, particularly the Everglades, respond the way they do to the metal, the newspaper said.
"Each water body has its own characteristics," Ted Lange, a longtime mercury researcher at the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission laboratory, said.
Health warnings based on precise mercury levels can be made only for a small number of Florida's rivers and lakes, researchers caution. For locations that haven't been examined, mercury levels could be anything from almost zero to off the scale, they said.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
