Teledyne Leeman Labs Blog

Clear Lake near Clearlake Oaks, California is home to the Elem Indian Colony, but while it has been an area of spiritual significance to the colony, it has better known as a toxic dump for mercury contamination as a result of the Sulfur Bank abandoned mine. For more than a century, the mine has leached tons of mercury in to the lake, poisoning the tribe’s food chain and the fish in the lake. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been studying the mine since 1990, and engaged in a number of cleanup operations and preventive efforts to reduce the contaminated runoff.  The EPA considers the mine a high priority and will complete a feasibility study in the spring of 2017.

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What Is Mercury and Why is it Toxic?

Mercury is a metallic element with the symbol Hg and is the only liquid metal at room temperature. Mercury’s zero oxidation state (Hg⁰) exists as a liquid or vapor, its mercurous state (Hg⁺) forms inorganic salts, and its mercuric state (Hg⁺²) exists as either inorganic salts or organomercury compounds. With the exception of elemental liquid mercury, all forms of mercury are toxic, and some deadly.

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It was only a matter of time.

Virtual reality and augmented reality, a.k.a. VR and AR have become increasingly popular with revenue forecasts of $120 billion by 2020. It was only a year ago that the world was taken over by kids walking all over their neighborhoods hunting down and capturing virtual characters on Pokémon GO, a location-based AR game. By the end of February 2017, Pokémon Go had been downloaded more than 650 million times.

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The proliferation of mercury in fish is a well-documented environmental problem. Mercury accumulates in fish tissue from natural and anthropogenic source in bodies of water where the fish live. The microorganisms at the base of the aquatic food change convert the elemental mercury into organic methylmercury, which binds tightly to the proteins in fish tissue.

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Last month we introduced Jeff Forsberg, Mercury Product Line Manager for Teledyne Leeman Labs so this month we will spotlight Manny Almeida.

The post is meant to provide an opportunity to put a face to a name, as well as background details about our internal subject matter experts, and their perspective on lab technology and industry issues. In this post, we spotlight Manny Almeida, ICP/DCA Product Line Manager for Teledyne Leeman Labs

 

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We are introducing members of the Teledyne team through Q&A sessions in our blog. The posts will provide an opportunity to put a face to a name, as well as background details about our internal subject matter experts, and their perspective on lab technology and industry issues.

 

Spotlight: Jeff Forsberg, Hg Product Line Manager, Teledyne Leeman Labs

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The familiar Florida summertime clap of daily thunder signals to the kids playing ball outside that it is time to go inside for a bit.  Any U.S. Gulf Coast kid knows when the thunderstorm clouds roll overhead to get to shelter—fast--- because next to come are the threatening lightning strikes. While the lightning is a dangerous concern, the invisible pollution dangers from thunderstorms may be even worse than the lightning strikes. 

The Mercury Deposition Network has evaluated rainwater nationwide for twenty years.  It has puzzled analysts as to why the mercury levels were persistently so much higher in the southeast, especially in the Gulf Coast states of Florida and Louisiana, than those of northern states.  

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Spearheading a global group of scientists, the U.S. Geological Survey chronicled the mercury pollutants in the air, soil, sediment, plants, fish and wildlife throughout western North America.  Ecologists complied decades of data and studies to assess groupings of mercury and methylmercury.

Mercury, a heavy metal, is organically found in the rock of the earth’s crust.  It can become problematic when people, fish, and wildlife are subjected to elevated levels of mercury in its harmful configuration, methylmercury. 

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With millions of consumers reportedly getting sick each year from foodborne diseases, how do food analysts know the best methods to keep products safe, manage risk and protect the integrity of their brands?  With the variety of methods available in the battle of food defense, food safety experts have to carefully hone their choices. A recent article in Lab Manager magazine went into more detail about a few of these methods.

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An abandoned ammo factory in Kings Mill, Ohio is on the EPA list as one of the most contaminated sites in the country. The site, once home to the Peter’s Cartridge Company, could be the new home to luxury apartments and commercial office space overseeing the Little Miami River. The $25 million plan, which includes 120-130 apartments and 23,000 square feet of commercial space, is dependent on whether the site can be remediated from the mercury, copper and lead that has contaminated the soil for more than a century.

 

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