Atmospheric Mercury Outflow from China and Interprovincial Trade

Mercury (Hg) is characterized by
its ability to migrate between
continents and its adverse effects on human health, arousing great
concern around the world. The transboundary transport of large anthropogenic
Hg emissions from China has attracted particular attention, especially
from neighboring countries. Here, we combine an atmospheric transport
model, a mass budget analysis, and a multiregional input–output
model to simulate the atmospheric Hg outflow from China and investigate
the impacts of Chinese interprovincial trade on the outflow. The results
show outflows of 423.0 Mg of anthropogenic Hg, consisting of 65.9%
of the total Chinese anthropogenic emissions, from China in 2010.
Chinese interprovincial trade promotes the transfer of atmospheric
outflow from the eastern terrestrial boundary (−6.4 Mg year–1) to the western terrestrial boundary (+4.5 Mg year–1) and a net decrease in the atmospheric outflow for
the whole boundary, reducing the chance of risks to foreign countries
derived from transboundary Hg pollution from China. These impacts
of interprovincial trade will be amplified due to the expected strengthened
interprovincial trade in the future. The synergistic promotional effects
of interprovincial trade versus Hg controls should be considered to
reduce the transboundary Hg pollution from China.