Articles | Volume 16, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3061-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3061-2016
Review article
 | 
09 Mar 2016
Review article |  | 09 Mar 2016

Passive air sampling of gaseous elemental mercury: a critical review

David S. McLagan, Maxwell E. E. Mazur, Carl P. J. Mitchell, and Frank Wania

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Cited articles

AMAP: Assessment 2011: Mercury in the Arctic, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme Oslo, Norway/Geneva Switzerland, 193 pp., 2011.
AMAP/UNEP: Technical Background Report for the Global Mercury Assessment 2013, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme/United Nations Environment Programme, Oslo, Norway/Geneva, Switzerland, 263 pp., 2013.
Barbosa, A., De Souza, J., Dorea, J., Jardim, W., and Fadini, P.: Mercury biomagnification in a tropical black water, Rio Negro, Brazil, Arch. Environ. Con. Tox., 45, 235–246, 2003.
Bartkow, M. E., Booij, K., Kennedy, K. E., Müller, J. F., and Hawker, D. W.: Passive air sampling theory for semivolatile organic compounds, Chemosphere, 60, 170–176, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2004.12.033, 2005.
Bohlin, P., Jones, K. C., and Strandberg, B.: Occupational and indoor air exposure to persistent organic pollutants: A review of passive sampling techniques and needs, J. Environ. Monitor., 9, 501–509, 2007.
Short summary
For more than 20 years, scientists and engineers have tried to design simple sampling devices that can collect gaseous elemental mercury from the atmosphere without the use of a pump. A thorough review of the sampler designs that have been presented so far suggests that while some may be suitable for measuring higher air concentrations close to sources, none of them have the accuracy and precision required to record the low atmospheric mercury concentrations prevalent in background regions.
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