#arsenic — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #arsenic, aggregated by home.social.
-
Wildfires send arsenic into rivers long after the flames are gone https://www.earth.com/environment/wildfire-arsenic-drinking-water/
-
The smoke from #Canada’s #wildfires may be even more #toxic than usual
A legacy of #mining means that #ToxicMetals could be carried along plumes of smoke.
by Matt Simon, June 5, 2025
"More than 200 wildfires are blazing across central and western Canada, half of which are out of control because they’re so hard for crews to access, forcing 27,000 people to evacuate. Even those nowhere near the wildfires are suffering as smoke swirls around Canada and wafts south, creating hazardous air quality all over the midwestern and eastern parts of the United States. The smoke is even reaching Europe.
"As the climate changes, the far north is drying and warming, which means wildfires are getting bigger and more intense. The area burned in Canada is now the second largest on record for this time of year, trailing behind the brutal wildfire season of 2023. That year, the amount of #carbon blazed into the atmosphere was about three times the country’s #FossilFuel emissions. And the more carbon that’s emitted from wildfires — in Canada and elsewhere — the faster the #PlanetaryWarming, and the worse the fires.
" 'There’s obviously the #ClimateFeedback concern,' said Mike Waddington, an environmental scientist at McMaster University in Ontario who studies Canada’s forests. 'But increasingly we’re also concerned about the smoke.'
"That’s because there’s much more to wildfire smoke than charred sticks and leaves, especially where these blazes are burning in Canada. The country’s #forests have long been #mined, operations that loaded #soils and #waterways with #ToxicMetals like #lead and #mercury, especially before clean-air standards kicked in 50 years ago. Now everyone downwind of these wildfires may have to contend with that legacy and those pollutants, in addition to all the other nasties inherent in #WildfireSmoke, which are known to exacerbate respiratory and cardiac problems.
" 'You have there the burning of these organic soils resulting in a lot of carbon and a lot of #ParticulateMatter,' said Waddington. 'Now you have this triple whammy, where you have the metals #remobilized in addition to that.'
"What exactly is lurking in the smoke from Canadian wildfires will require further testing by scientists. But an area of particular concern is around the mining city of #FlinFlon, in #ManitobaCanada, which is known to have elevated levels of toxic metals in the landscape, said Colin McCarter, an environmental scientist who studies pollutants at Ontario’s #NipissingUniversity. Flin Flon’s 5,000 residents have been evacuated as a wildfire approaches, though so far no structures have been destroyed.
"But a fire doesn’t need to directly burn mining operations to mobilize toxicants. For example, in #Yellowknife, in Canada’s #NorthwestTerritories, #GoldMining operations between 1934 and 2004 spread #arsenic as far as 18 miles away, adding to a landscape with an already high concentration of naturally occurring arsenic. In a paper published last year, Waddington and McCarter estimated that between 1972 and 2023, wildfires around Yellowknife fired up to 840,000 pounds of arsenic into the atmosphere. Arsenic is a known carcinogen associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and developmental problems, according to the World Health Organization. (After the 2023 #LahainaFire in Maui, officials reported elevated levels of arsenic, lead, and other toxic substances in ash samples. California officials also found lots of lead in smoke from 2018’s #CampFire.)"
Source:
https://grist.org/climate/canada-wildfire-smoke-toxic-arsenic/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #AirIsLife #Mining #ToxicLegacy #FirstNations #Canada #Pollution #Worldwide #AQI #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCatastrophe #AirQualityIndex
-
Environmental Impacts of #Geothermal Energy
Published Mar 5, 2013
Union of Concerned Scientists"The most widely developed type of geothermal power plant (known as #hydrothermal plants) are located near #geologic “#HotSpots” where hot molten rock is close to the earth’s crust and produces hot water. In other regions enhanced geothermal systems (or hot dry rock geothermal), which involve drilling into Earth’s surface to reach deeper geothermal resources, can allow broader access to geothermal energy."
[...]
"Some geothermal plants also produce small amounts of #mercury emissions, which must be mitigated using mercury filter technology. Scrubbers can reduce air emissions, but they produce a watery #sludge composed of the captured materials, including #sulfur, #vanadium, #silica compounds, chlorides, #arsenic, mercury, #nickel, and other heavy metals. This #ToxicSludge often must be disposed of at hazardous waste sites."
[...]
"Land #subsidence, a phenomenon in which the land surface sinks, is sometimes caused by the removal of water from geothermal reservoirs. Most geothermal facilities address this risk by re-injecting wastewater back into geothermal reservoirs after the water’s heat has been captured.
"Hydrothermal plants are sited on geological “hot spots," which tend to have higher levels of #earthquake risk. There is evidence that hydrothermal plants can lead to an even greater earthquake frequency. Enhanced geothermal systems (hot dry rock) can also increase the risk of small earthquakes. In this process, water is pumped at high pressures to fracture underground hot rock reservoirs similar to technology used in natural gas hydraulic #fracturing. (See How Natural Gas Works for more information.) Earthquake risk associated with enhanced geothermal systems can be minimized by siting plants an appropriate distance away from major fault lines. When a geothermal system is sited near a heavily populated area, constant monitoring and transparent communication with local communities is also necessary."
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/environmental-impacts-geothermal-energy
-
#Rice is already known to contain more inorganic #arsenic than other cereals. Cooking rice with water containing more than 10 µg L-1 (parts per billion) inorganic arsenic amplifies the risk of arsenic exposure Long-term exposure to inorganic arsenic in water can cause serious health problems such as #cancers, #diabetes and #pulmonary and #cardiovascular diseases
#Environmental #NutritionalScience #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2024/03/en03212402.html