Mercury Exposure among E-Waste Recycling Workers in Colombia: Perceptions of Safety, Risk, and Access to Health Information

Exposures to the toxic element mercury (Hg) are exceptionally high among recycling workers globally. Recycling is a growing sector in Colombia, yet workers who directly handle e-waste are often unaware of the risks of exposure to mercury from post-consumer lighting products (e.g., fluorescent lamps). This qualitative study aimed to understand how recycling workers perceive their own risks from mercury exposure and how they find information about these risks, through interviews (n = 35) at the three largest formal recycling facilities in Colombia. Workers’ risk perception was generally disconnected from their likely actual exposure to mercury, instead often seen juxtaposed to co-workers who worked more directly with hazardous waste. Recycling workers, who were predominantly men from lower-income socioeconomic backgrounds, had limited knowledge of health risks due to mercury exposure and were more likely to receive health-related information from informal sources. Over a third of interviewees had searched online for information about occupational health risks of mercury, but these searches were perceived as unsatisfactory due to information being difficult to find, not available in Spanish, or related to mercury exposure via seafood or mining rather than recycling. Workers expressed (over)confidence in personal protective equipment and concern about frequent employee turnover. This study points to weaknesses in environmental health literacy and public health communication around toxic exposures to mercury in the workplace. Stronger regulation and enforcement are needed to prevent toxic exposures and promote worker health equity.

Effect of flue gas components on the NO removal and element mercury oxidation performance of Mn-modified low-temperature catalyst

The development of a low-temperature water and sulfur-resistant catalyst with high efficiency of NO removal and element mercury Hg(0) oxidation performance is one of the main directions for the synergistic removal of multiple pollutants from flue gas. The transition metal Mn is used to modify the V-W/Ti catalyst to prepare a modified Mn-SCR catalyst. The effects of Mn loading and complex flue gas components (SO2, H2O and HCl) on the modified catalysts activity were investigated on a small fixed-bed experimental bench, respectively. As the Mn loading increases, the acid sites on the catalyst surface are significantly enhanced, the window of NO removal temperature is significantly widened, and the Hg(0) oxidation performance is nearly 100%. The optimal loading amount of Mn is 0.2(Mn/Ti, mol). When the Mn loading exceeds 0.2, the particles on the catalyst surface sinter, and the specific surface area decreases. However, little difference is observed in catalyst activity. When SO2 and H2O are present in the flue gas, dual-action catalyst activity can be significantly suppressed, but the effect of H2O on catalyst activity is greater than that of SO2. With the increase of the HCl concentration from 0 ppm to 50 ppm, the oxidation efficiency of Hg(0) and the removal efficiency of NO increased slightly.

The adsorption and catalytic oxidation of the element mercury over cobalt modified Ce–ZrO2 catalyst

Co modification dramatically enhances Hg0 removal efficiency because of the increased surface active oxygen species.