IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v10y2019i1d10.1038_s41467-019-09080-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trans-provincial health impacts of atmospheric mercury emissions in China

Author

Listed:
  • Long Chen

    (East China Normal University)

  • Sai Liang

    (Beijing Normal University)

  • Maodian Liu

    (Peking University)

  • Yujun Yi

    (Beijing Normal University)

  • Zhifu Mi

    (University College London)

  • Yanxu Zhang

    (Nanjing University)

  • Yumeng Li

    (Beijing Normal University)

  • Jianchuan Qi

    (Beijing Normal University)

  • Jing Meng

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Xi Tang

    (East China Normal University)

  • Haoran Zhang

    (Peking University)

  • Yindong Tong

    (Tianjin University)

  • Wei Zhang

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Xuejun Wang

    (Peking University)

  • Jiong Shu

    (East China Normal University)

  • Zhifeng Yang

    (Beijing Normal University
    Guangdong University of Technology)

Abstract

Mercury (Hg) exposure poses substantial risks to human health. Investigating a longer chain from economic activities to human health can reveal the sources and critical processes of Hg-related health risks. Thus, we develop a more comprehensive assessment method which is applied to mainland China—the largest global Hg emitter. We present a map of Hg-related health risks in China and estimate that 0.14 points of per-foetus intelligence quotient (IQ) decrements and 7,360 deaths from fatal heart attacks are related to the intake of methylmercury in 2010. This study, for the first time, reveals the significant impacts of interprovincial trade on Hg-related health risks across the whole country. For instance, interprovincial trade induced by final consumption prevents 0.39 × 10−2 points for per-foetus IQ decrements and 194 deaths from fatal heart attacks. These findings highlight the importance of policy decisions in different stages of economic supply chains to reduce Hg-related health risks.

Suggested Citation

  • Long Chen & Sai Liang & Maodian Liu & Yujun Yi & Zhifu Mi & Yanxu Zhang & Yumeng Li & Jianchuan Qi & Jing Meng & Xi Tang & Haoran Zhang & Yindong Tong & Wei Zhang & Xuejun Wang & Jiong Shu & Zhifeng Y, 2019. "Trans-provincial health impacts of atmospheric mercury emissions in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-09080-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09080-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09080-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-019-09080-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang Chang & Yun Zhu & Che-Jen Lin & Saravanan Arunachalam & Shuxiao Wang & Jia Xing & Tingting Fang & Shicheng Long & Jinying Li & Geng Chen, 2022. "Environmental Justice Assessment of Fine Particles, Ozone, and Mercury over the Pearl River Delta Region, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Kehan He & Zhifu Mi & Long Chen & D'Maris Coffman & Sai Liang, 2021. "Critical transmission sectors in embodied atmospheric mercury emission network in China," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(6), pages 1644-1656, December.
    3. Deng, Zhilong & Liu, Jian & Hong, Yu & Liu, Weigang, 2024. "The effect of internet use on nutritional intake and health outcomes: New evidence from rural China," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 11, pages 01-11.
    4. Xuechun Yang & Sai Liang & Jianchuan Qi & Cuiyang Feng & Shen Qu & Ming Xu, 2021. "Identifying sectoral impacts on global scarce water uses from multiple perspectives," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(6), pages 1503-1517, December.
    5. Hailong Li & Fanyue Meng & Penglin Zhu & Hongxiao Zu & Zequn Yang & Wenqi Qu & Jianping Yang, 2024. "Biomimetic mercury immobilization by selenium functionalized polyphenylene sulfide fabric," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-09080-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.