2. How Much Mercury Is In Your Soil? Aubrey Lewis Freeport High School Mr. Irwin and Ms. Lewis

3. Introduction Mercury can be found in many different places. Landfills, Auto Junkyards, and Beaches.

4. What is Mercury Mercury is one of many heavy metals on this planet. Mercury stays in a liquid form at room temp. Mercury was used in filling for teeth until recently when it was found to be to cause Mercury Poisoning

5. Mercury Poisoning Mercury poisoning effects the nervous system. It can cause personality changes, nervousness, trembling, and even dementia. In the 19th century these people were called “Mad Hitters”.

6. Materials Mercury Analyzer Goggles / Gloves BOD Bottles Soil Samples

7. Reagents and Standards 10% Stannous chloride Sulfuric acid, 0.5N 5% Sodium chloride-hydroxylamine sulfate solution Mercury stock solution (1ml=1mg Hg ) Mercury working standard

8. Perkin-Elmer FIMS 400

10. Mercury Analyzer The FIMS 100 Mercury Analyzer use a Flow Injection System to analyze the sample It reads the absorbs of the sample to see how much mercury it contains. Absorbs @ 257.5um

11. MERCURY EXTRACTION METHOD 1) 0.6g of sample 2) Add 5mL of RGW and 5mL of aqua regia 3) Heat for 2min @ 95 0 C, than cool 4) Add 50mL RGW and 15mL 5% Potassium Permanganate (KMnO4) 5) Mix and Heat for 30 min @ 95 0 C 6) Cool, add 6mL of Sodium chloride hydroxylamine sulfate 7) Analysis within 1-28days

12. MERCURY STANDARDS STOCK (diluted to 1ppm) 100uL of 1,000ppm + 100mL 2% HNO 3 1mL = 1mg Hg 1,000pmm (For 500mL of 2% HNO3 mix 10mL HNO 3 with 490mL RGW) (For 500mL of 2% HNO3 mix 10mL HNO 3 with 490mL RGW) 100uL / 100mL (50uL / 50mL) = 1/1,000 dilution = 1ppm

13. Results The samples from two landfills have be tested so far. One sample has a higher percent of Mercury then the other. We believe this is because of were it was taken.

14. Later Work In later work I want to test samples from all over Long Island to see what area has the highest amount of Mercury. We wish to see if this areas have a higher rate of Mercury Poisoning and Developmental Disorders then other places. And we want to test and see if there are other toxic Metals that could be in the soil.

15. ~Acknowledgements~ Dr. Sat Bhattacharya Harlem Children’s Society Mr. Ed Irwin Ms. Vanessa Lewis