Implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury in Austria

The international Minamata agreement on mercury aims to protect human health and the environment from the dangers of mercury pollution and to minimise inputs into the environment. Mercury, a metal of natural origin, is used in many ways and thus gets into air, water, soil and living things. This report provides an overview of Austrian studies and activities related to mercury monitoring. On the one hand, these are emission assessments under the Convention on Transboundary Air Pollution and, on the other hand, studies in environmental compartments (deposition, mosses, spruce needles, soils, groundwater, surface waters, sediments, wastewater), food as well as in living beings and humans.