Heavy Metal Pollution

• paints • old batteries • water pipes • old makeup

• lowers your IQ • inhaled or absorbed by the skin through sweat • acute: brain damage, death

• effects of lead poisoning cant be reversed • recycling batteries properly • removal of lead paints

• some foods e.g tuna • batteries • combustion of coal energy-saving lightbulbs

• not easily absorbed by the gut • organic mercury - lipo-soluble, bioaccumulate + biomagnify which pass through cell membranes

• replacement of mercury in thermometers • ion exchange • dispose mercury at high pH - less mobile

• batteries • old nickel - cadmium

• lip-soluble • lung cancer • brain damage

• banned use in pigments • recycling • hazardous waste landfill sites

• contained tri-butyl tin (TBT)

• alters growth + reproduction of marine organisms • can be passed into humans

• paint residues in chemical waste • landfill

• residual iron ore in spoil heaps leached out by rainwater

• not toxic - can cause deoxygenation in water • death of aerobic organisms

• spoil heap drainage water • passed through mesh screens to oxidize iron and collect it